Chapter 2

**I can be a friend too?** is the first chapter in Mirai Pretty C̶u̶r̶e̶, and the first from Kiriya's point of view.

## Chapter

        School was boring, most things were, but school was especially. It was better than the alternative though, waiting around in the Dotsuku Zone with the irritable Jaku King, fearing for his life over a secret that if anyone in the Dotsuku Zone where to find out, he would be killed.

        "Irisawa-san?" The teacher called. Gesturing to a math problem on the bored

        "Yes?" Kiriya blushed, he wasn't paying attention.

        "Can you tell me the answer to the problem?"

        "17!" Kiriya blurted out the first number that popped into his head.

        "Incorrect, can you come up to the board and show me how you got the problem?" Kiriya froze, he knew little about math, it wasn't needed in the Dotsuku Zone.

        "Do you want to go to the office?" The teacher shot him a look. Kiriya nodded, the office was in the girls' school, so perhaps Honoka would be there. Plus once he said 'Hello' to her, he could leave the grounds. The teacher wrote him a pass and sent him on his way.

        He speed walked out of the building, avoiding eye contact. Outside was a bit better, less pressure to act human, and no need to shove away the fact that he was sort of fearing for his life.

        "Somebody help!" Someone cried above him.

        "Huh?" Kiriya looked up, to see some sort of strange organism doing a mixture of flying and falling through the sky. Best described as a pink lady bug thing, probably a similar speicies to Mipple. Kiriya ducked as it flew past his head. Bracing for an impact.

        "Hello, I need to talk to you. I'm Ribbon by the way. Cure Princess needs help, she can't fight the Desertain and take care of a person she requested at the same time. Can you please come with me?" So maybe Cure Dream did exist? And besides it spoke!

        "Um, who summoned the Desertain?"

        "I don't know, please come, you have magical powers, I can't leave Princess alone like that!"

        "Okay. I'll try." Kiriya nodded, sensing the thing's urgency. The two dashed away from the school, to wherever this Cure Princess person was. He felt queasy at the thought of it, he had never actively helped the Precure before, and what if the rest of the Dotsuku Zone found out?

        "I can teleport us."

        "Really? Why didn't you say so earlier?" The thing turned around.

        "I can. Where do you want to go?"

        "The woods near the school." The two of them warped. Kiriya didn't like teleporting very much, he always was concerned that sometime he would teleport to someplace, but never arrive there.

        "That's really cool! I thought only our enemies had that power!" The world slowly materialized around them, blurry blobs sharpened out.

        "Princess, I got help!" The fairy darted over to a girl with way too much blue hair. Probably Cure Princess. Perched near the giant monster was some strange woman, nobody he knew. That was good.

        "Hello. I'm Irisawa Kiriya." Cure Princess looked over, she opened her mouth as if to say something, but didn't. Probably didn't like him, that was fine with him.

        "I know you, you're the one from earlier. You told me about those Black and White people." Someone walked up behind him, there voice was familiar.

        "Are you Cure Dream?" Kiriya said, hoping it was the right name.

        "No, I'm just a clone." She sighed. Kiriya made a mental note to never assume someone's name again, it seemed to bother people. He was pretty sure that a sigh meant someone was annoyed.

        "You're up!" the fairy's voice became even more high pitched.

        "Yep." The Cure Dream clone, Dark Dream was her name Kiriya was pretty sure. Cure Princess walked over. The four stood around, looking at each other not sure what to say.

        "Can't you just fight already? I put in all this trouble creating this monster and you're just doing whatever!"

        "Leave us alone, Sasorina."

        "Cure Princess was doing more then me or you'll ever do to protect this world." Dark Dream squirmed, trying to be brave.

        "Desterian get them!" Sasorina ignored Dark Dream's words. Cure Princess and Dark Dream jumped towards the incoming monster, giving it a good kick.

        "Now for you." Sasorina's eyes glowed as she creeped towards Kiriya. Kiriya turned into his real, Dotsuku Zone, self. There wasn't much difference, mainly no tacky school uniform and slightly odd blue eyes. Sasorina tried to punch him, but he managed to jump out of the way.

        She attacked him a few times more, but Kiriya was able to escape. Was this all that fighting was? It was awfully disappointing and boring.

        "How long are you going to dodge me?" Sasorina rolled her eyes.

        "I don't know, I guess when you stop attacking me would make sense."

        "Are you trying to be brat?" Kiriya was confused, he simply stated the facts, was this how he used to act? "If so, I like that, most of my opponents are soft magical girls who go on the same generic monologues about how I'm a creep, and how much more important love and friendship are then me." Sasorina continued. Kiriya froze, did she need redeptamation like he did?

        "It does hurt. I understand. You're just doing your job, and trying to get killed by your ruler-"

        "Don't go off like that! It doesn't do any good, pretending like you understand..." What was Kiriya to say, he wanted to help her, but he didn't want to anger her more. Sasorina kicked him, knocking him to the ground.

        "I've been there, I was evil too, but things are better now."

        "Ah, so you're one of the weak ones?" Sasorina towered over him, smirking. Kiriya could hardly breath, what was she going to do to him?

        "Princess Bullet Machine Gun!" White spheres pounded the ground like hail. Whacking Sasorina, and creating a small dust cloud. Cure Princess landed in front of Kiriya.

        "Thank you..." Kiriya looked down, he felt grateful, but felt guilty about Cure Princess hurting Sasorina like that. Yes she was a villain, but so was he once, at least he hoped he wasn't still bad, with his reluctance to fight for fear of the Jaku King finding out.

        "Hmpth." Sasorina teleported away.

        "We defeated the Desertain. Thanks for distracting Sasorina for us." Dark Dream landed next to him.

        "You're welcome." Kiriya smiled.

        "Are you okay?" The fairy from earlier dashed in. Kiriya nodded.

        "So, um... will you, will you?" Cure Princess murmured. "Be my friends!?" She finished a bit too loud.

        "You deserve better, I'm a fake. A girl like you should have the real thing." Dark Dream frowned. Cure Princess's eyes glistened.

        "Please, she really wants to be your friend. She doesn't have many."

        "I can't. I'm an imposter of a real Cure, Cure Dream, created to destroy her in fact. I would just be a burden!" Dark Dream sprinted off. The fairy followed her. A few moments later Kiriya took a deep breath.

        "I'll be your friend."