The instant a rainbow burst of light erupted from Arisu's hands and obscured her figure, a black shadow flashed past. The light immediately vanished. The intensely unnatural feeling made Arisu lower her head. She had not transformed into a Pretty Cure and was still Yotsuba Arisu.
The feeling of having nothing in her hands snapped the girl awake. When she looked up, she saw Lance struggling in Ash's grip, his face full of panic.
"W-why—let go of Lance!"
"Looking for this?" Ash waved the fairy in his hand at Arisu, flinging off a few tears in the process.
The moment Arisu transformed, Ash had intervened with impeccable timing, taking away the fairy partner that served as her transformation item and causing the Pretty Cure transformation to fail.
"Lance-chan!" Arisu cried out the name of her fairy and hurriedly called to Ash. "Ash-sensei, please let Lance go."
"Sure. Beg me, and I'll give him back."
"Please!"
Seeing the girl bow deeply before him without a moment's hesitation, Ash had no doubt that if it were for a friend, even if he followed Naikai's example and made her kneel before him, she would do so immediately without reservation.
"Honestly, you're so straightforward that it's making me start to hate myself." Not intending to make things difficult for her, Ash tossed the loudly protesting transformation device back into Arisu's relieved hands.
"Before the transformation is complete, you're full of openings. Someone like me could easily take you out the first time we meet. All right, what did you learn?"
Hugging Lance, Arisu retreated several steps to put distance between herself and Ash. Seeing that she had caught on, Ash smiled and raised his card deck again.
"Precure Love Link!"
"Henshin!"
A pitch-black Phantom and brilliant yellow spiritual light flashed across the mirror. On