In the Eight Queens' Lands, a cautious peace between eight rulers has given way to a fight with invaders going after all eight. Each monarch depends upon her chosen Precure to fight back the Metamasters and their puzzle monsters, the Hanjir. Queen Bianca's Precure, Takaraike Miu (Cure Lock) and her less confident younger sister Takaraike Rei (Cure Cipher), arrive at her palace, ready to present three transformation devices to their tentative ally Queen Shyama. What they find instead is a Metamaster infiltration, and they're sent into a void where they end up separated. Rei falls through a portal and out of the sky into an unfamiliar world...
In the year 2034, the human world is as exciting as ever, but Shinobu Emi feels like there's something missing. She does well in school and she has a lot of admirers, like the sweet and slightly strange Senri Chika, and a fun best friend, Kaji Hideko, who dreams of solving mysteries. Emi, though, doesn't know what to do with her life like everybody else does. But when they see Rei falling from the sky, suddenly there are more important things to worry about.
Puzzle Hunt Precure
uses a system that twists the Wonder Twin Powers of some seasons by not having designated partners for its Precure, just needing partners in general. It also has a heavy puzzle theme extending to the plot itself.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Action Prologue: The first half of chapter one has Cure Cipher and Cure Lock fight a Hanjir and get sent into the void.
- Ambiguously Brown: Rei and Miu, being from a Magical Land and thus not corresponding to any particular real-world ethnicity anyway. Averted with Chika, whose ethnicity is spelled out (her mom is Brazilian and she's described as darker-skinned than Emi or Hideko).
- Blow You Away: Cure Riddle's finishing move.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Tetya comes off as this to the other villains (she's the same age as the Cures, but infinitely more annoying).
- But Not Too Foreign: Chika is half Japanese and half Brazilian.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: "Link! Precure Solution!"
- Cape Swish: Often and obligatory, since the Metamasters all wear different kinds of capes.
- Compulsory School Age: Averted, as Rei is stated in the character designs to not end up attending Kuromasu.
- Cool Big Sis: Miu is much more self-assured as a Precure than Rei is and serves as Rei's encouragement before they're separated.
- Dead Fic: Hasn’t been updated since 2014.
- Debut Queue: All five Precure are introduced in the first four episodes.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Unlike everyone else around her, Emi hasn't found where she "fits".
- Does Not Like Spam: Emi considers egg salad inedible.
- Easing into the Adventure: Rei and Miu start out on a visit to Queen Bianca that quickly goes sour and ends up as the Action Prologue. Emi and Hideko, however, spend their portion of episode one mainly going through their everyday lives.
- Elsewhere Fic: An Original Character fanseries.
- Good Colours, Evil Colours: Cryptalla has a deep purple aura, and so does all of her magic. The Cures all have pastel themes.
- Government Conspiracy: Upon seeing Edel, Hideko briefly wonders if fairies are part of a government cover-up.
- Hollywood Autism: Chika's character in large part calls it out. She has social difficulty (compounded by her shyness as well) and needs the Candy Cluster as aids, she's a teenage Asian lesbian instead of a little white boy, she goes to school and is part of Class 5 (which is equipped to help people with all manner of disabilities) and seems to do well, and her life isn't treated as any less full or worthwhile than anyone else's.
- Love Letter: Emi gets them regularly and answers every single one.
- Magical Land: Rei comes from the Eight Queens' Lands.
- Monster of the Week: They're called Hanjir and they're all literal Puzzle Bosses.
- Morning Routine: Emi's is shown in episode one, showing the setting's slight futuristic touches and her hobby of doing the puzzles in the morning paper.
- My Hero, Zero: Cure Cipher may be themed after codes, but since "cipher" can also mean "zero", her real name is Rei.
- Ominous Opera Cape: Cubia's cape is one of these.
- Puzzle Boss: Every single Hanjir. Based on puzzles, they have to be fought only to keep them at bay while the Cures solve them to defeat them.
- Rebellious Princess: Hideko initially suspects that Rei is this, or at least a rebellious Lonely Rich Kid, when the latter appears out of nowhere in a fancy gown covered in dirt and twigs.
- Sailor Fuku: Kuromasu Middle School's is old-fashioned with a long skirt and slightly poofy sleeves. Emi freely admits it isn't very fashionable.
- Save Both Worlds: The Metamasters end up attacking the human world, too.
- Series Mascot: Edel, the girls' de facto fairy, and Nono, who was Rei and Miu's fairy before they were separated.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Chika uses a lot of big words when she's not stammering and blushing (and often when she is).
- Shrinking Violet: Chika is very shy, which her robots point out when she's having difficulties.
- Stock Puzzle: The series is themed around them. Each Monster of the Week is one (for example, the first one turns a topiary into a 15 Puzzle), the Eight Queens' Lands are based on the Queens Puzzle, and characters are themed after them on either side (from Tetya to Cure Riddle).
- Superheroes Wear Capes: None of the Precure, but all of the villains.
- Theme Naming: Everyone and everything is a puzzle.
- Transformation Name Announcement: Naturally for all the Cures. "Complete" teams — first Cipher+Lock and eventually Cipher+Jigsaw+Riddle+Tangram — also announce that they're Puzzle Hunt Precure.
- Transformation Trinket: The Pre-Cubes, which hold two-piece pins that have to be swapped and mixed with another to use.
- Trapped in Another World: Rei and Edel are trapped on Earth for the foreseeable future.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: Takes place in 2034.
- Verbal Tic: Edel's "I think" and Nono's "you see", since, well, they're fairies. Cubia also overuses "well".
- White Mask of Doom: Cryptalla, leader of the Metamasters, wears one, then wears a cloak over top that obscures half of the mask anyway. The mask also distorts her voice, making her sound unreal.
