My constant obsession with Chris ships got me thinking on some of my other favorite magical girl ships. I love all of them, but the fact that two of them are from Precure really tells me I need to watch and read more magical girl works.
“Hm… So this is where your from…” Laura mused aloud as she scanned the horizon.
The blue ocean twinkled and sparkled in the sunlight, it was a deep sapphire in stark contrast to the pale azure of the sky overhead. All around, pale sand wrapped around the small island which was overly burgeoned with tropical plants of verdant quality. The air here was fresh when Laura breathed it in deep and she had to squint her eyes to see the village itself that had settled on this small patch of land amid the water.
It wasn’t a bad place to be, honestly. Laura didn’t want to admit it but Manatsu’s dinky little hometown was actually quite picturesque. Laura didn’t have a wide frame of reference with only Aozora City but this wasn’t bad. Actually, she might like it more. This place seemed more in harmony with nature and with the sea in particular.
The ocean stretched on endlessly over the horizon. She couldn’t even see the city skyline of Aozora City from this beach that she and Manatsu had planted themselves on after an hour and a half long ferry ride. So, for the first time in a long time, Laura felt far, far away from humans.
“Yep, do you like it?” Manatsu asked.
Laura hummed thoughtfully. She couldn’t tell Manatsu outright her true feelings. That would spoil her image and her philosophy of treating Manatsu mean to keep her keen.
“Its fine.” Laura lied.
“Hehe, I’m glad, I know that’s as close as you’ll get to saying that you like it.” Manatsu laughed trickily.
“Hey.” Laura pouted. She put her hands on her hips.
“C’mon, let me show you around.” Manatsu replied.
She waved Laura down and Laura followed suit upon being beckoned. They dragged their lugged through the sand, the wheels struggled but they got to the edge of the beach alright. Manatsu led the way and they walked a small, dry road down to where her and her Dad live.
The walk was fairly short but the greetings and salutations were anything but. Despite being a pretty little spot out this way, they didn’t get very many tourists or guests so Laura was, ironically, given the royal welcome. Everyone wanted to say hello and get to know her.
There was food and drinks and merrymaking. It was ridiculous and exhausting. Though Laura didn’t mind. She amused the small kids who had once been Manatsu’s underclassmen and friends very much with her eccentricity and quirks. The adults were endeared, too.
All were heartened to see that their little Manatsu had grown up so much.
Of course, Manatsu was the same old same old. She was bold and brash, loud and noisy. They loved it. All the honorary grandparents, aunts and uncles, they were all so glad that the big city hadn’t changed their precious little bumpkin an inch.
Manatsu agreed. It was good to be home but it was even better to be able to share it with Laura.
Neither could get any smidgen of alone time but that was fine. There was plenty to see and do and they all wanted it done in a single afternoon. Crazy since they had the whole week to spend here during the school holidays but the excitement was just that tremendous.
Every shop, every hideyhole, all of it had to be shown off and shared with Laura. Manatsu had so many good memories to relay and old stories to share. Laura listened with muted intrigue. She was learning lots and lots about human culture where she had not before.
Manatsu and Laura had taken the earliest possible ferry and as soon as they had hit town, nothing had let up at all. The names and faces to learn and relearn, the fun to be had. They didn’t get a moment to themselves until the very end of the day.
It was hard to believe that they finally had some time to breathe. Everyone had been rounded up and booted out. Including Manatsu and Laura, as though to give them some privacy for goodness knows what.
At around eight, Manatsu’s father had - somehow - shooed off all the visitors, asking for some privacy whilst he made dinner for his daughter and her… very special friend.
The thought of calling Laura her “very special friend” flattered Manatsu immensely. It gave her butterflies in her stomach. Laura was, indeed, her very special friend but girlfriend was a whole lot less verbose but it was kind of up in the air which was kind of scary. After all, they both knew at the end of the year, Laura would return to the Mermaid Kingdom and both would split without their memories.
In the meantime, they had to live in the now and there was no now quite like that of a beach at sunset.
At the rear of Manatsu’s house, there was a semi-private beach. The Natsuumi family weren’t selfish, anyone could use it but for now, it was just Manatsu and Laura on the golden sands and burgundy sea. They stood together and watched the best television there was in nature: the waves.
They stood amid a salty, tropical breeze and enjoyed the entropy of the water crashing against the shoreline. They stood just before where most the water was breaking and could reach. The sand underfoot was fine and flat, the water was bouncy and playful. They watched clouds and seabirds, they watched the sunset and inhaled the serenity.
Laura tucked a curl of her hair behind her ear as she was kissed by the breeze, “I think this is the most peace we’ve had all day. I like it the best so far.”
“I’m glad, are you enjoying your stay here so far?” Manatsu asked.
Laura turned her head and she returned Manatsu’s question with a wordless smile. Manatsu’s heart pounded as she drank in the splendour and glory of Laura’s smile, the way her eyes crinkled in the corner and her pupils glimmered with a crystalline blue.
It said everything and more.
“Y-Yeah,” Manatsu stammered, suddenly nervous because gosh, she loved Laura so much but she was so fickle, like water running through her fingers, she turned away because the sun was somehow more bearable than Laura, “it’s kind of like… our own little paradise.”
“Yeah, it does.” Laura giggled in agreement.
There was a beat. They listened to seagulls caw and cry, the sound of the ocean breaking on the shoreline. It was quiet and yet loud. How peculiar.
Manatsu mustered some courage, “We should put our names on it!” she suggested.
“Huh?” Laura blinked.
“Yeah, it’d be romantic.” Manatsu said. “To write our names in the sand, it’d be like a scene in the movies.”
Laura still hadn’t watched very many of those but she was interested. She knew the sentiment was there and that it was meant to be sweet and whimsical. So, she stepped back and let Manatsu play in the sand. She just watched.
Manatsu got down on her knees and the perfect plains of sand were now torn up her footprints and handprints. She carved through the sand with her finger and she got to work. She drew in straight lines and easy bends. The sand spilled up around her fingers and was so soft, Manatsu grinned in glee as she wrote her and Laura’s names adjacent to where they knelt and stood respectively.
When she was done, Manatsu sprang up. She was just as bouncy as the seafoam on the water. She spread out in a jumping jack and landed with only a threat of toppling over and spraining her ankle. Laura winced but it was all water off the duck’s back that was Manatsu’s.
She gestured, “Tada, what do you think?”
Laura hummed as her eye followed the point of Manatsu’s hand.
Manatsu beamed as she looked proud upon her work: her chicken scratch hiragana and katakana surrounded by a love-heart drawn in the sand. She had put her all into it as simple a gesture as it was.
Laura preened, flattered. Her heart did stir over it as something genuine quivered on her lower lip of her smile. She batted her eyelashes, also, as she found her voice in the most appreciative tone.
“I love it, Manatsu.” Laura replied.
“Hehe, I’m glad.” Manatsu rubbed her nose to at least pretend she was humble.
She shifted her weight to and fro from one foot to the other, too. She was on cloud nine to have Laura’s validation. Laura didn’t mind, either, Manatsu was so cute when she was being all bright and passionate.
Neither girl kept an eye on what was happening out the corner of their peripheries as they soaked up this little moment of romantic gesture.
To the right of them, the ocean reared back and began to foam. The two girls watched, in awe, as the wine dark sea disappeared, disappeared, and disappeared only to rush forward. Their jaws dropped as a massive wave formed out of seemingly nowhere and came crashing down in the blink of an eye. It rushed. Fast, quick, swift, and gobbled up the shoreline.
Manatsu’s drawing in the sand disappeared. The sand swished and slurred, their names taken into the depths. The water splashed at their ankles, cold and clashing.
Manatsu’s jaw dropped, “O-Our names…” she stammered, her eyes were wide as dinner plates in her disbelief.
Laura began to giggle. She held her hand up daintily to her mouth so she could laugh in a way which was kind of polite. She watched, amused, as her and Manatsu’s names in the sand were drenched in seawater and rendered unlegible.
She had to admit. This outcome should have been expected. Both were unlucky and Manatsu had drawn their names in such an ephemeral manner, also.
“H-Hey.” Manatsu warbled, her chin pruned as she felt betrayed by Laura. She turned her head and beamed her disappointed puppy dog eyes into Laura directly.
Laura stepped closer and she took Manatsu’s hand, she stroked it consolingly with the backstroke of her thumb, “Manatsu,” Laura chided her, “our love is not erased just because the sea has erased our names written in its sand. C’mon, stop being childish.”
“Heh, true.” Manatsu relented and she stiffened up, comforted by Laura’s affection - even if it was doled out with a teaspoon of cement, her sweet voice and her handholding the sugar to complement.
“Good.” Laura smiled and she gave Manatsu’s hand a squeeze.
Together, they stood a little longer on the beach and basked in the setting sun over the water. The water continued to rise up and reach them, lapping at their ankles but was once more calm with the sudden spike in tide that had caused them trouble being seemingly completely random.
Nagisa Misumi/Cure Black x Honoka Yukishiro/Cure White (Futari wa Pretty Cure) vs. Manatsu Natsuumi/Cure Summer x Laura Apollodoros Hyginus La Mer/Cure La Mer
Nagisa x Honoka
Manatsu x Laura
Voting ended onMar 15, 2023
Old vs. the newest pairing remaining in the bracket! ...Again!
