Previously on Oranges to Grapes...
Eartha is still skeptical about Rosita and Jessica (and joining them in their quest), but after the latter manipulates fate into summoning more Diademons, the fennec fox is about to witness how they're usually dealt with...
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Rosita and Jessica raised the Sealing Balls over their heads and shouted together, "Precure Ruination!"
Conner and Leopold dissipated into grass and snow, and it swirled around the girls and made their clothes turn into colored light... then they started changing!
First, their torsos were surrounded in grass and snow and collected into their tops.
Next, more grass and snow collected around their waists and became their bottoms.
Then, even more grass and snow collected around their limbs until they became their arm and leg covers.
Finally, they threw the Sealing Balls in the air as more colored light poured from their heads and became their hair, then the balls got on their chests and became their adornments.
"Antithesis of forgiveness, Cure Grudge!"
"Antithesis of love, Cure Hatred!"
"Answer for your injustices! Hell-Sent Precure!"
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Now that both Cures were ready to face the Diademons, all Eartha could do on the sidelines... was hold Rotom in her paws in anguish and shock. But the Diademons weren't as easily enthralled, so the girls had to act fast.
Cure Hatred conjured up her ice daggers and pounced on one of the three, slicing it clean down the middle. Then, Cure Grudge lashed her vines out at the halves and grabbed them, swinging them at the other two and WHALED on them before the split one shattered into diamond dust, leaving the remaining ones severely cracked.
"Alright, Hatred," Cure Grudge said, "you take the one on the right, I'll take the one on the left."
"Works for me," Cure Hatred agreed.
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Cure Grudge leapt into the air and sent out all of her vine laces, and they grabbed one of the Diademons all over its body!
"This is the punishment for your crimes! Precure... Grasswither..."
The vines pulled with all their might, and it tore the Diademon apart with each vine coiled around a piece!
"FRENZY!!!"
The vines flailed all over the place, bludgeoning the pieces into the ground before they smashed them all together in midair!
"You have issues!" the Diademon seemed to say before it was shattered into diamond dust.
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Cure Hatred rushed forward and elongated her ice blades, right towards the other Diademon!
"This is the punishment for your crimes! Precure... Icerend..."
She thrusted the blades forward with all her might, and they impaled the Diademon clean through!
"MINCER!!!"
She flailed the blades all over the place, slicing and dicing the Diademon into bits!
"You have issues!" the Diademon seemed to say before it was shattered into diamond dust.
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As the diamond dust floated away on the breeze, the two magical girls turned around to face the little fluff. "So, is what we're trying to tell you sinking i-" Cure Hatred started, but Eartha was nowhere to be found.
"What the..." Cure Grudge said. "Where did Eartha go!?"
Where indeed... Meanwhile, the vulpine in question had managed to flee the conflict before the finishers were thrown and crossed the shallow end of the moat to duck into the chasm where the entrance to Groundblight Shrine was. "Gee... and I thought not being able to make a sandwich was bad, but this is too much. Castle-headed monsters are popping out of that dome, and the only way to stop them is to be monsters ourselves... That's it, I'm convinced."
"There she is!"
But Eartha had already made her way to the metal door patterned with chartreuse light. "Don't try to stop me, you two! My mind is made up! I've decided to join you!"
"Wow, really?" Rosita said after Conner separated from her. "Us shattering three of those things was all it took to snap her out of her skepticism?"
Leopold then separated from Jessica before she said, "She's obviously one of those people who'll only believe anything if there's cold, hard evidence to back it up, and we gave her just that."
"Oh, I got evidence, alright," Eartha said as she held up her still-unconcious Rotom. "Look at the evidence I got! Pokemon can't stop those whatevers, but you two clearly can! Well, I won't let myself stay in the lurch by not doing anything! I'm getting my own piece of the action, too!"
"WAIT DON'T-"
But it was too late. Eartha had already touched one of the lines of light, and in a shine of chartreuse... the fennec fox girl was gone, leaving Rotom behind!
"Welp, there goes another one," Rosita said, lowering her ears in worry.
"Come on, let's not get down," Jessica said. "...And that's all I can say."
"I think what Jessica's trying to not jinx," Leopold added, "is that this could be a good thing. Eartha just went in a common Girl Scout, but she'll come out our third member with another spirit."
"If at all," Conner cut in. "But she's also impulsive, perhaps too much to make the first move and establish the connection on her terms."
"Well, there's always hope, Conner," Rosita said as all four looked at the shrine's door. "There's always hope..."
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To be continued.
