For example, me?
"If you mean Gomora, didn't we already defeat it... huh?"
Only after Ash's reminder did Pretty Cure remember, turning their eyes toward the massive shadow still vaguely struggling amid the rising dust.
"Awooo..."
Having lost its horn and tail, Gomora had lost all its ferocity. It lay painfully on the ground, letting out wounded roars again and again.
Hearing those cries, which seemed to carry grievance and pain as they grew weaker wave after wave, even the girls who had fought it so desperately earlier could not bear it.
"It looks like it's in so much pain."
Only then did they remember that this was not a battle against an enemy from the Phantom Empire. This was not something that could simply be eliminated so easily.
"Ash-sensei?"
"You were the ones who defeated it." Ash crossed his arms over his chest, speaking calmly as though he were a patient teacher trying to impart some lesson. "Then it is also your responsibility to see it through its final journey."
"No..." Listening to the monster's inexplicably sorrowful cries, as though it were trying to convey something, kind-hearted Yuko felt increasingly distressed. "Isn't there any better way, Ash-sensei?"
That innocent side of them was no different from the others. This was exactly the troublesome part I mentioned before—always hoping for the best in everything. But...
"You are Pretty Cure."
"You decide this for yourselves."
Ash generously gave them the stage—or rather, since he wanted to see what they would choose, he left the matter entirely in their hands and watched.
As the girls silently approached Gomora, the evil presence that had once made them tremble with fear once again turned into darkness on the verge of taking shape, drifting endlessly from the increasingly agonized Gomora.
"This is—"
"I knew it."