"I told you from the start, didn't I? I don't understand gradual progress. I'll spur your growth by making you experience real terror firsthand."
"You ask why I won't stop? What do you think a real battle is? As long as one side hasn't undone their transformation—or even still has the will to throw a punch at the enemy—the battle isn't over!"
"Cough, cough, Ash-sensei—"
Ash's movements were extremely rough, practically aimed at killing Arisu. Yet, in the girl's eyes, things seemed different. Through that mask, she could vaguely see the anticipation and longing shining in the man's eyes.
Arisu grabbed the man's hand and desperately forced out a few words through clenched teeth.
"Why... why are you forcing yourself...?"
Forcing myself...
What did that mean? Was she pitying me?!
"Don't be so full of yourself!"
But this woman... she still wasn't planning to give up? Tch. Were Pretty Cure, those so-called heroes, all this stubborn?
Forget it. They were just little girls in the end.
Maybe I shouldn't have held them to the standards of those heroes. This was enough.
Ash shook his head, then slowly tightened his grip, intending to simply choke her unconscious. As the pressure on her throat increased, Arisu's vision sank into darkness, and her consciousness gradually began to drift away.
Was this... it...?
Yotsuba Arisu felt as if she had fallen amid crashing waves. No matter how she called out, the fiercer tide only swallowed her whole, until everything around her seemed meaningless and she sank into the pitch-black depths of the sea.
Seawater instantly flooded her nose and mouth. An indescribable suffocating sensation washed over her, staining Arisu's thoughts.
So tired. So sleepy. She wasn't supposed to rest while fighting Ash-sensei, but she wanted to fall asleep just like this.
"With feelings alone,