It doesn't look like it's over yet.
"Mei! Ash! Are you here?!"
Faintly, the calls of Kohime and the others can be heard. But I'm really sorry. I'm so confused that I probably won't be able to wait until they come.
"I also apologized to them for me."
But before that... I still have something to do.
"Hui..."
"Huh?"
Holding Ash's increasingly cold hand, she responded softly, wanting to remember this "warmth" at least in the end.
"It's not... past 12 o'clock yet, right?"
Ash was relieved when he got a nod of affirmation. At least he caught up in the end.
"I always, always remember."
"What day is it today?"
The girl who was still a little confused at first couldn't help but open her already red eyes when she saw the man trembling and leaning against the thing in front of her.
That was, the invitation letter that had been torn into pieces and then glued back together was delivered to him along with his Light Transformation Mirror, and on the top of these things, a handmade wooden comb lay quietly on it.
What I could no longer endure was now falling straight down.
"Megumi."
The man lying in the girl's arms raised his fingers and gently wiped away the girl's tears.
"Happy birthday."
[Volume 4 HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! over!]
[Volume 5 Go! PRINCESS Pretty Cure! On standby!]
Afterword of the lucky group. "[My Ash is the strongest!]" (Chapter 6K5)
Dark.
It's not the darkness that you can only see when you close your eyes, but the meaning that there is nothing in the scenery here except darkness.
This is the world after death, a world that originally belonged to Ash and was corrected after death.
Unable to speak, unable to see, unable to think, and even thinking itself does not exist, as if all the meaning of my life has been integrated into this infinite void.
However, except Ash.
Usually the system sends his soul back here together with the collected Dark Echo, and then purifies the echoes he carries by cleaning the memory, ensuring that his soul can always remain clear and clean.
But this time it was different. He had transformed Kei's darkness into echoes and was packaged and "sent" in some way. After the system went offline, this was the first time he lay awake in this world. Just close your eyes and pretend to be unconscious, lying in this world, listening to the voices of the other three people.
"Ash, I am really yours... As expected of you!"
Dast's yelling and cursing came over, but no one noticed that he was pretending to sleep, and no one went to check. After all, it is difficult to change a habit that has been maintained for a long time.
"Knowing that I only lacked the power of the Imperial Cavalry, did you not hesitate to use her hands to destroy the belt and life in the end?"
"What does this have to do with it? Didn't you defeat all Kamen Rider from both the righteous and heretical ways and accept their power? Do you really need that imperial knight?"
"Anyway, it's all about borrowing power. Don't you Rider still lack something similar?"
Another cynical and similar sound mixed in, and even Ash, who had his eyes closed, could hear the sound of him flicking the guns in his hand out of boredom.
"Would you be happy if you lacked the power of Gokaiger?"
"I don't care~ Anyway, I only inherited part of the memory, and I'm not the real Ash."
"Stop, are you planning to start a quarrel and reduce the number of actual controllers of Dark Echo first?"
It was ethereal and solemn, and the meaning contained in it was completely unlike the echo that humans could say. Ash, who had never thought that he could make such a sound, had goosebumps listening to it.
Well, if they really took away the power of others and made me a "clone", I would be no different from a sheep to be slaughtered in front of them.
What can I do?
Think about it carefully, Ash. Now that you have decided to face everything by yourself in front of Megumi, then think about what you can do now that you have lost the system, right?
"The problem now is that as the key to activating Dark Echo, you only brought half of it back, right?"
The being that was completely light was sternly accusing Dust.
Because you violated our previous agreement and had no intention of taking action together, but wanted to keep it all to yourself. So before Ash returned to the world for the last time, he contacted him first, and then alerted him and even brought back half of the stolen system.
Now you have to face such an embarrassing situation, and it's all your problem.
"Haha."
Dast, who had scars on his face and looked like he had been beaten, looked at the other two "himself" with a mocking smile on his lips. "Do you dare to say that you don't have similar thoughts? Are you saying that I intend to monopolize it?"
"It's just that my actions are implemented earlier than your plan, right?"
"..."
"Ha, what, now you have nothing to say again?"
Hearing the silence that no one could respond to, the "sleeping" Ash was also calculating rapidly in his mind.
Team feud? This is of course, after all, if everyone is "Ash", it will definitely be like this, so taking this opportunity... No, it is not a problem for them to deal with me first and then fight among themselves.
Is it really all possible?
'wrong. '
Regarding the fact that the system wants to use the "Dark Echo" they have collected so far to hold some kind of world-changing ceremony, Ash is clear. After all, that was how they agreed.
And these guys betrayed the system at the last moment and wanted to use the "Dark Echo" ritual to realize their wishes. Ash also learned about it through the battle with Dust. However, the matter has come to this, since Dark Echo, which was originally kept by [the system], was stolen by them.
So where did they put these existences?
Cutting through the much thinner air in an unobtrusive way, Ash felt a certain sense of enlightenment in his heart.
'So, has it always been like this? '
"Rather than arguing, the biggest question now is what we are going to do next, right?"
"It's already obvious what we need to do. Isn't the final puzzle piece to complete everything right there waiting for us to get it?"
Hatred, pity, and pain, Ash immediately felt that three different eyes were locked on him.
"Dust... he is still Ash."
The first thing to speak was the voice with echoes in its words. "No matter what you think, he is the man who shaped us, Ash."
"Oh, then do you think it would be better for us to recognize him as our father?"
I laughed, couldn't help laughing. Dast looked at the man of light standing in front of Ash with a joking look.
"Obviously he has more power than anyone else."
"My heart is softer than anyone else's."
Even if I kick my nose and scold someone like this, I will be indifferent.
Otherwise, you could have used the excuse of my previous mistakes to exclude me in advance, instead of actually teaching me a lesson.
Just like what I have always done... But you wouldn't do it if you had the chance, not only because of your kindness, but also because the only two people who can take action on the system are me and Ash.
"..."
Dast's eyes glanced at the other guy in colorful clothes. He just shrugged to Dast and motioned for him to take action. He had no intention of getting involved in these troubles.
"Humph, what a waste."
Daxter, who was cursing, still remained unusually wary of his direction. "Don't worry, I don't intend to anger him anymore. Anyway, he lost everything in the end, right?"
"Then just throw him into any new world, and let him wake up and remember the pain alone...!"
Dast, who was thinking casually and stretched out his hand to Ash, suddenly realized something was wrong. It must be that Ash's hand grabbed his arm at some point while he was sleeping. The expression he used to mock others not long ago was laughed at by Ash in turn.
"Then I really appreciate your kindness!"
Concentrating all the power just for this moment, Ash threw the extremely heavy Dust flying with his feet wide open. At the same time, he was also rolled in a certain direction by the reaction force.
"Wonderful, beyond my expectation."
With a simple acceptance, Dust stood up again and quickly figured it out. "That's true, but what's the use of your resistance?"
"Maybe it's because I hate surrendering without mercy? And I hate surrendering my friends to betrayers?"
"What a nuisance—well, you've only met me, right? How about meeting the other two people who will completely defeat you in the future?"
Since you resist, the next matter cannot be resolved peacefully.
"Light." His whole body was covered by the purest light, and even his face was blurred by the light. Only his body shape could barely tell the existence of a humanoid. He answered Ash's question with an echoing voice that could not hear emotion. "It's the Ash that took away the power of the Ultraman series."
"Sorry."
"Calle (colour)~" After waving his only hand to the smiling man Ash with a horrified expression, he crossed five inverted symbols of different colors across his chest. "As you can see, they are symbols representing different colors. So I am responsible for Super Sentai, but I'm sorry, but even so, I am the only one representing the team."
"Where is the child named Hui who looks very happy?"
"..." Facing the three opponents like this, Ash, who had nothing to do, moved back and took a deep breath to calm down. "Why do you want to attack the world of those heroes?"
"Because the system and what you plan to do will definitely be stopped by them." The indifferent Kahler explained to him after being asked. "So before they gather together and cause some miracle to defeat you in one go, those of us with corresponding special attacks were created to defeat them first and seize the power, so that they don't get in the way."
"But as you can see, we have no intention of using these powers for good."
"That really disappointed me and Him." In order to delay time, Ash harbored new questions in his belly. "I'm not surprised that you would betray me, but what are you planning to do with Dark Echo?"
"Dark Echo is the energy used by the system to interfere with time and space and fundamentally change the fundamental structure of all worlds and the universe."
"So, I'm sorry, we also want our own world. Since desires exist, there will be a world that we want to realize, right?"
That's more or less it. As for your deeper true meaning? Haha, maybe we haven't thought about it ourselves, but will we still tell you?
"Is that so?"
Now that you know the reason, it will be easier to handle.
"So, can you please hand over to us the existence that wants to take action against everything?"
"No, because He is my friend."
That's really great.
The belt that emerged turned Daxter into "Kamen Rider", and the two people on the other side also took out "Beta Capsule" and "Gear Machine Gun" respectively and transformed into their respective representative forms.
"In this way, we can legitimately make you bleed."
At this time, Ash was surrounded by beings that gathered all the power of the Big Three Tokusatsu series. But Ash has no power to fight back except himself...
Is this really the case?
"Let me ask, why is there such a thing as the God of Death?" Ash laughed as he looked at the dark shadow quietly appearing behind him and the sickle in his hand. "It is said to be a place for me to rest after death, but this is not hell, but the world created by the system, right?"
Otherwise, why do you look like you want to harvest my soul every time, but never do it when I can't resist?
"Wait a minute, didn't that God of Death create beautiful special effects?"
Seeing that the other three people were completely surprised by the existence of the "God of Death", Ash finally smiled.
"..." took off the hood, and the "God of Death" revealed the existence of the skeleton underneath that was completely composed of data traffic. "[I am, the subsystem He created for you after experiencing the 102nd world with you.]"
"For what?"
"[The mission is to put your soul back into reincarnation when your soul finally cannot bear it, or when it is broken and loses the ability to respond to you, giving you true peace, forgetting all this, and starting a happy life again.]"
"In the end, I managed to survive, right?"
"[...]"
"If I still don't want to give up now." Looking at the guys who were ready to move over there, Ash hooked his hand towards the "God of Death". "What if I want to accept everything that represents who I am?"
"Dark Echo, it is said that it is an existence that can shake the foundation of the multiverse... But after all, it is just something I collected bit by bit. It is my thing from the beginning to the end!"
"Do it!"
It was too late, a very familiar ominous light shot from their hands towards Ash.
"Cover me with the veil of night!"