Throughout the morning, not a single thing was going wrong. Sora and Emiri walked to school together like always, they chatted with Suzuko and their other classmates before class, and Sora even managed to turn her homework in on time. It was a perfect day, or at least the start of one. The day seemed to gradually get better when Sora met up with the others for lunch. She opened her bento and to her surprise, her favorite meal was in there.

"Yay! Meat buns! My mom is the best!!" Sora was so excited that she started stuffing her face while the others barely started pulling out their food.

"Soraaaa, wait for the rest of us!" Izumi said, watching Sora start eating.

"Ahaha sorry! I'm just so hungry. But I can wait a minute I guess.." she replied.

Emiri, Izumi and Miyuki all pulled out their lunches and started eating along with Sora. Suzuko then walked past the group, wondering if she should join.

"Hey Suzuko! Come eat with us!" Emiri called, getting Suzuko's reaction as she reluctantly walked over and joined them.

"Hi guys, do you always eat here?" Suzuko asked.

"Yeah, every day!" Sora replied. "Where's your food Suzuko?"

"I don't have any, I already ate." Suzuko said.

"Are you sure? If you're still hungry, I can give you some of my food!" Emiri offered.

"Oh so can I!"

"Me too!"

Suzuko was completely surprised by everyone's offers. "No, it's fine. It's your food and I don't want you to have to give it up for me."

"But if you're still hungry, it's the least any of us can do." Sora said. Suzuko didn't say another word and sat next to Sora. Izumi looked over at Suzuko, noticing her hair.

"Oh Suzuko! Your hair looks so cute when it's down! I like it that way!" She said.

"Mhm mhm! I like your hair that way!" Miyuki agreed.

"Really? Well, thank you." Suzuko smiled for a moment, before blankly staring back into space again. She stopped spacing out when Sora handed her one of the meat buns she had for lunch.

"Here! Do you want a bite? It's delicious, trust me!"

"Well I'd feel bad saying no..." Suzuko took the meat bun and took a bite. Her eyes lit up as she bit into it. "That tastes really good, I haven't had food like this before!"

"Ehhh you haven't? You mean your parents don't cook nice food for you?" Miyuki asked, totally surprised.

Suzuko panicked for a minute. She almost just revealed her true lifestyle to everyone. They couldn't know that the food she ate was poorly cooked and not enough to even get by in a day. She constantly got hungry late at night but feared what would happen if she snuck out to get some food. She quickly came up with an excuse that seemed convincing.

"No, no! I meant that my parents don't really cook things like meat buns." She laughed nervously. Everyone around her let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm glad! For a minute I was worried that you don't eat at home or something like that." Emiri said.

"Same here. At least it isn't anything too bad." Sora said.

The girls continued eating and talking to Suzuko until the class bell rang. They had no choice but to pack up and head back to class. Sora knew that in class she was getting some quiz results back, and she just hoped that she'd get a good grade. She didn't want to kill what was already a good day after all.

~⚡️⚡️⚡️~

Quake started becoming very restless. He had just returned from reporting his failed attempt to stop the Precure. He was embarrassed over the fact that he fell asleep instead of actually trying to fight. He was told because of his blatant laziness, he now had one chance to reclaim the keys or else he'd face the final punishment. This was messing with Quake a lot. He couldn't sleep at night, he spent all of his time training and trying to improve to make up for wasted time. But it wasn't looking very good for him.

"Why?! I mess up and now I have way less time to prove myself! I might as well admit defeat now... unless..."

Quake thought about it. He had to come up with something that would surprise the Precure and would guarantee a defeat for them. What if he caused an earthquake in the city? Maybe that would do the trick! That had to be the way to go. He remembered that Tornado created a disaster before his defeat. It was worth a shot. He laughed maniacally to himself. His plan was perfect, he'd be unstoppable and nobody on earth would see it coming. But before he went, he also grabbed some mysterious crystals, similar to the ones Tornado grabbed before he met his end.

~⚡️⚡️⚡️~

Sora's good mood was unstoppable during the afternoon. She got a decent score on the quiz the teacher handed back to the class, she had a really great soccer practice, and she got to walk home with her entire friend group for once.

"Is it just me or am I having like, the best day ever?" Sora asked.

"You seem like you're pretty happy today!! Even in the morning, you were excited." Emiri said, smiling.

"Yeah, did you get a good grade on that quiz or something? You seemed excited looking at your score." Izumi pointed out.

"As a matter of fact, I did! The best grade I've gotten in a while! Yay!" Sora held up a peace sign to her face and smiled.

"That's good! I bet your study sessions with Emiri are helping!" Miyuki said.

"I think they are, even if she complains a lot when we study." Emiri teased.

"That's not true!" Sora pouted as everyone else laughed.

"I bet if you get Suzuko to help you, your grades could get even better!" Izumi suggested. "I mean, she got the highest grades in the entire class. She's a genius!"

Suzuko blushed at Izumi's compliment. She didn't want to brag or seem too prideful so she didn't say anything.

"She did?! Wow! You'll have to help the entire class during midterms or something!" Sora said.

"Are you sure? I know there's other people who are pretty smart in the class..." Suzuko said before getting interrupted by Sora.

"True but I know even they might want some help. You got a perfect score right?"

"Yeah..."

"It would be fun! And you can even get to know your classmates better. Doesn't that sound great?"

"... I suppose... I have to go, I just remembered I have to meet my brother at the high school." Suzuko said, leaving the group.

"You could've said something sooner!" Sora yelled. But Suzuko didn't answer, she was running off towards the direction of the high school. Sora let out a sigh.

"She's still doing stuff like that... I wish I knew why she likes leaving so suddenly... and where does she live anyway?" Sora asked.

"No one in the class knows..." Miyuki replied, "I've asked a few people and they say she just runs off, never says where she's going."

"That's weird. Maybe she doesn't want people to know where she lives?" Emiri wondered.

"Maybe. Some kids think that she doesn't tell anyone where she lives because she's hiding some kind of secret or something." Izumi said. "There's also that theory that she's one of the children who was kidnapped at a park here in town, she even has the same name as one of the kids taken."

"Oh come on! That has to be a coincidence right? There's no way she could be that same kid. Could she?" Sora said.

"You never know Sora, and Suzuko seems to be pretty mysterious, she doesn't like saying a lot about her home life. I hope that there isn't anything wrong with her home life..." Emiri started to worry a little bit before receiving a comforting hug from Sora.

"It'll be okay, we just have to not worry about it for now. She'll talk when she wants to, I don't want to force her to talk about those kinds of things." Sora said.

"You make a good point, I shouldn't worry about it then." Emiri said.

The group continued walking, waving goodbye to each other when they reached their respective neighborhoods. Sora of course, was the last one to reach her home. She walked into her home and went straight up to her room.

Sora flopped onto her bed and sighed. Skyla floated over to her.

"What's up ~Sky?"

"Nothing, I've got one thing on my mind..." Sora responded.

"Well that isn't nothing ~Sky. What is it?"

"It's about Suzuko. You've seen her right? The girl me and Emiri have been going to school with? What do you think of her?"

"I hope this doesn't make me sound mean but, I get a strange feeling when I'm around Suzuko ~Sky. Something about her just doesn't feel right. I'm not sure what exactly it is though..." Skyla explained, looking rather worried.

"I kind of feel the same way. I do like her and I think she's my friend, but she runs off so suddenly sometimes. And she doesn't like talking about herself. I hope she isn't hiding anything bad. I'm worried about her." Sora said.

"I don't blame you ~Sky. Maybe she'll come around sometime, maybe she isn't used to being around friends ~Sky."

"I hope so. I do remember her telling me and Emiri that, she said her only other real friend is her brother." Sora said. "I'll try and forget about it for now!"

"That's more like the Sora I know ~Sky! Always happy and looking forward ~Sky!"

"Yeah!"

~⚡️⚡️⚡️~

Quake arrived to carry out his plan late at night. It was perfect, no one would expect it when they were sleeping after all. He laughed evilly until a voice interrupted him.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

Quake turned around, knowing damn well who was stopping him. It was none other than Naru.

"You again! Why do you insist on following me and the others?! And where's your brother, is he with you too?"

"Nope, I'm alone this time. And I'm only following you so you don't pull something as stupid as causing an earthquake in the middle of the night!" Naru shouted.

"Well what's so wrong with an earthquake in the middle of the night?" Quake asked.

"First off, if people wake up to an earthquake, it's not likely many can get out alive. And we're not supposed to harm civilians so I suggest you don't start anything." Naru explained.

"Well look at you, you actually care about these people!" Quake responded sarcastically.

"No! I just don't want you starting something like this while everyone's asleep. That's all." Naru felt so embarrassed by the thought that she actually cared about Shizen Town's residents.

"Alright fine... I'll wait until morning. Better?" Quake suggested.

"Sure." Naru then disappeared, leaving Quake looking over the town in the dark of night.

~⚡️⚡️⚡️~

Like any other normal day, people attended school or work. Things went on like usual in Shizen Town. But little did they know, a disaster would happen at any moment. Quake watched over Shizen Town, waiting for as few people as possible so he could carry out his plan. Once there was hardly anyone out in the streets, Quake knew it was time.

He leaped into the air and the moment he landed on the ground, punching as hard as he could, disaster began breaking out. The streets began to rumble and crack apart as people in nearby buildings began panicking and running for cover. He laughed evilly as Shizen Town started being destroyed.

Sora and Emiri were in class when the disaster began. Students began panicking and the teacher quickly realized what was happening.

"I want everyone to get under their desks immediately! There is an earthquake tearing through the town right now!" She commanded. Students began ducking under their desks, some students were even crying, terrified of what to expect.

"I knew it had to be him..." Suzuko quietly mumbled to herself, realizing exactly who was behind the incident.

Sora and Emiri weren't right next to each other but they both had a feeling they knew what was going on. Sora pulled out her phone and texted Emiri "Pollution?"

Emiri replied with a "Absolutely" but neither of them knew what to do. If it continued, there was no way they could escape the classroom to run off and fight. For the first time, the Precure were trapped.

Sora watched in horror as things in the classroom fell from the shelves, she couldn't help but fight back tears. She had to stay strong. She was going to be one of the ones to fix this. But how?

The shaking suddenly stopped. Students slowly got out from under their desks and looked outside to see a huge monster walking in the distance. No need for Sora and Emiri to know what was coming for them.

"Hey, I know this sounds bad but me and Emiri have to go. We gotta get out of here." Sora said.

"Are you insane Kato? I can't let you two go! It's too dangerous!" Her teacher responded, scared of the thought of losing her students.

"But teacher, we know someone who can help us. They've been seen fighting around here before. And me and Emiri know where to find them. Please." Sora begged. "I swear I'll always pay attention in class if you let us go. Please!"

The teacher looked at Sora and Emiri, unsure of what to say. She didn't want to disappoint them but if they knew about the mysterious heroines appearing and fighting, she had no choice but to trust them and let them help save Shizen Town.

"Okay, I can let you two go. Please, hurry and find them. We're counting on you." The teacher said, holding Sora's and Emiri's hands.

Sora and Emiri both nodded and ran out of the classroom unaware of the aftershocks that followed the earthquake. They both ran for cover in the hallway.

"What do we do?!"

"It's just an aftershock, don't worry. Here, grab my hand!" Emiri reached for Sora's hand, hoping if they stayed together, they could get out of this mess. Sora was able to hold onto Emiri's hand until the aftershock stopped. They could finally transform.

"Precure Nature Flash!"

The duo transformed and decided to jump out one of the windows to make it over to the giant KuzuBug even faster. They ran into one classroom where students were still under their desks.

"Excuse us! We're here to help fight that thing outside your classroom!" Ginger said to the class as they ran through, opening the window. The students looked at them having no idea what to expect. But as soon as they jumped out, all the students could do was wish them luck.

Lightning and Ginger flew through the air, landing right in front of the KuzuBug. Quake laughed as soon as he saw the Precure.

"I was wondering when you'd show up! Now prepare to meet your end!!" He announced, commanding the KuzuBug to punch the ground again, leading to another small earthquake.

The duo had no idea what to do, they started losing their balance as the ground split between them. And sure enough, the duo was separated. Lightning fell with a part of the ground that broke apart when the KuzuBug punched it. She was basically deep under the ground with no way to get up. She couldn't even run up this time.

"No no no no! What do I do?! I'm stuck! I know Ginger can't fight that thing alone! We're supposed to fight together!!" Lightning panicked. She tried to use her powers to get her to fly up into the air, but it was useless. She was stuck. Feeling defeated, tears streamed down Lightning's face.

"Emiri, I'm sorry. I failed as your partner..."

Ginger looked down at Lightning, fighting back her own tears. She had to save her best friend. It wasn't going to end here. It couldn't. Not until the Nature Kingdom was saved and the threat of Pollution was over. She usually waited for Lightning to encourage her, but this time, it was the opposite.

"Lightning, don't worry about me. I'll try and fight it until we can get you out of there! I know fighting alone isn't easy but it's all we can do for now! I promise I'll get you."

Lightning looked at Ginger, feeling just the slightest bit of hope. "Thank you... now go Cure Ginger! Fight with everything you've got!!!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.

Ginger nodded at Lightning before preparing herself to fight. Her power flowed through her body like never before. She stared down Quake and the KuzuBug with a look of anger and determination on her face.

"You separated me and my partner, and you destroyed my town! I may not be that powerful on my own, but I'll do everything I can to stop you!!" Ginger yelled, charging towards them. It was now up to her to take down Quake and save Lightning.

To be continued...