No longer wearing that initial expression of "humoring a child" or "having no choice but to play along with you," Ash bent down with a serious yet dazed look and picked up Erika, who was several heads shorter than him.
"Erika, Manager, I'm back!"
The voice from the entrance shattered Ash's strange mood. Both of them turned to look that way.
Rei stepped through the door between them.
Smack—
The paper bag of Strawberry Daifuku in her hand fell to the floor with a crisp sound.
Hanasaki Rei looked at the two embracing figures. Her hands remained in the position of holding something, yet they trembled along with her pupils. The girl, her eyes full of disbelief, slowly raised a hand to cover her mouth, which had fallen open and would not close.
"Erika...?"
"M-Manager...?"
"Why?"
Why? Why?!
The Two in Silence
Cure Blossom and Cure Marine, despite seeming somewhat off today, were still protecting the city.
"Pretty Cure Pink Forte Wave!"
"Pretty Cure Blue Forte Wave!"
Two enormous flowerbud blasts struck today's Desertrian one after the other. The two buds crashed directly into each other, their petals even getting tangled together, fully displaying how poorly coordinated the two were.
"Normally, those two should be using a combined finishing move..."
Itsuki, who once again had not gotten a chance to purify the enemy, awkwardly scratched her soft cheek as she watched the two girls standing back-to-back.
For some reason, Rei and Erika had been especially aggressive in battle today—aggressive to an almost frightening extent... And after knocking down the Desertrian, they could clearly have used a stronger combined finishing move to purify it, yet they had insisted on using their skills separately, as though...
As though they were competing against each other.
"Tch, what's with Pretty Cure today?"
Cobra Saga's