Chapter 55 So-called friends
Regina, who was holding Ai-chan, sang a lullaby, swaying her arms to the rhythm of the song, and listening to the girl's sweet singing, the sleepy baby soon fell asleep.
Now Regina doesn't look like a member of a dark organization trying to invade the world at all, but more like a young lady who comes out to play carefree with her loved ones.
As for wearing Showa-style motorcycle leather jacket when going out, Ash who is following behind wearing sunglasses is purely the eldest lady's bodyguard.
"What a cute sleeping face. I feel like my mood has improved. Mana is right. Playing with many people will make you happier!"
"Hmm, it would be great if Regina could understand."
The girls chatted happily, and the initially awkward relationship quickly heated up. Ash, who couldn't find a way to interject into the topic, could only pretend to be a spark puppet next to her with a paralyzed face.
"I also like this sculpture very much." He looked up at the stone sculpture that looked like Poker Kingdom Princess. Regina looked more and more familiar, and he felt as if he knew her.
"Especially the red gem on the chest, I like it so much! Do you know what this gem is?"
"We speculate that this should be Royal Jewels... Hmm!" Makoto, who said his guess smoothly, only realized what he was talking about when other people's eyes turned to him, and it was too late to cover his mouth subconsciously.
"Royal gems, I remember you said this, Arisu, is a prop that you PreCures are collecting, right?"
Haha, Ash-sensei actually knew it from Arisu?!
The girls' attention shifted to Arisu again. The orange-haired girl faced everyone's look at the "traitor" and bowed her head in embarrassment.
"Ash-sensei Even if you don't know it from me, you will definitely know it from everyone."
"That's the truth... in short, this Royal Jewels is a very important thing we are collecting!"
"Oh, I understand when you say this."
Isn't this the process of collecting Core Medal, collecting lock seeds, and obtaining all switches? This is Dai-ni's commonly used business method for bringing goods.
"Can the Royal Jewels you are talking about be linked with your weapons and transformers? Does it have sound and light linkage sound effects?"
"Ash-sensei What you said is too outrageous." Arisu began to explain for him. "Generally speaking, gems don't emit light or make sounds. Royal Jewels is not a child's toy."
"Then it seems that Dai-ni is not active in selling toys this year." Ash's eyes drifted far away from the fourth wall of C05 level with a pointed gaze.
"Don't be so absolute. Maybe among your descendants, there might be Pretty Cure who can be transformed into a gem."
"Use gems to transform, it feels so gorgeous!" Hearing Ash's words, Mana's eyes showed longing. "I really want to get to know them!"
"I guess it won't be long. After all, the linked theater version is Dai-ni's favorite operation to harvest fans' money."
"It feels like Ash you are always saying some strange things that others can't understand today." Regina, who was unable to join the conversation, puffed up his cheeks in dissatisfaction. After thinking about what they said, he pointed to the gem on the statue. "Ash, since it is what Mana and they are looking for, then give this to them as a gift."
"Wait a minute, this belongs to the art museum, you can't just take it!"
Ai quickly spoke up to stop her Gian behavior.
But Regina doesn't understand the rules. Ash must understand the rules, right?
"Master Princess, give it."
Hey, you're going too fast!
"Ash-sensei, you are committing a crime!"
Facing the accusations from Rikka and the others, Ash held the red gem and shrugged innocently.
"Look, no matter what, I am now a member of the dark organization that is trying to invade the earth. But you ask me why I take things without paying for them?"
"I can't argue with that... but this feeling is so annoying!"
They don't want to accept this fact. It feels like all their efforts have been in vain!
Playing with the red gem in his hand, Ash looked at the plastic texture on it with disgust, it completely felt like a DX toy.
While everyone was arguing whether to put it back or to take it back quickly, the statue from which Ash took out the gems began to appear cracks from the chest part and expanded all the way. After a while, it shattered to pieces on the ground.
"What, what, what, what should I do!!!"
The girls immediately panicked when they saw that the thing was broken. You must know that this is an exhibit in an art museum. No one knows the actual value of this sculpture. If they all sell it and they can't afford the compensation...
"Is there no other way but to buy this art museum first?"
Arisu, whose thinking was different from others, immediately took out his mobile phone and started to contact the housekeeper about the acquisition.
"If you break something, just fix it. Put this together here... that's it."
Seeing Ash pick up the broken sculpture and put it back together again, the corners of the mouths of the four girls began to twitch.
"This, what is it?"
The original beautiful and gorgeous female statue has been transformed by Ash into a shape with the head on the chest and legs on the head. If thrown into the COC world, the investigators will have to pass the SAN value test.
"Hmm... Annihilate the mecha beasts, probably."
"You also know that your spelling is wrong!"
The other girls, who were about to cry in a hurry, finally focused their attention on the initiator Ash. As expected, he stood there without any worries. He threw away the plastic gems in his hands and observed the surrounding situation. Ash came up with an idea.
"I have a great idea."
"There is no surveillance here. No one knows that we did it. You can escape quickly before it's too late."
Hearing Ash's proposal, the girls wished they could transform into Pretty Cure and punch him. To a certain extent, Ash was quite capable of being annoying at critical moments.
"I'm really sorry!"
The girl finally decided to honestly apologize to the museum. Fortunately, the craftsman who carved the stone sculpture did not make it difficult for them, but very generously said that it was not their fault.
"That stone sculpture is not something that can be broken by a little girl's strength. It should be the reason why it is almost broken, so it shouldn't be your fault."
Of course it's not their fault, the culprit is still hiding behind the pillar and whistling.
"And this stone sculpture was carved out of nowhere after I picked up a red plastic stone at the beach. In fact, it doesn't have a realistic feel after it's carved. It doesn't feel like it was made by myself. If it's broken now, it's broken."
Although Mr. Craftsman repeatedly said that he didn't need to care, Ai and the others still offered to help with the aftermath, at least they didn't want to just watch and do nothing.
"Ash-sensei, this is your fault, don't just watch!"
Rikka, who helped pack the stone carving fragments, picked up the broom and saw Ash, who was not helping at all, just like at home, and once again made a sound of dissatisfaction.
Originally, Ash planned to refuse as usual, but when he saw the girls taking the initiative to help, he felt a little embarrassed, so he took out a green dial and threw it away.
"[Watermelon Armor~Little Ball Watermelon~]"
"Ha, only such a small one can have..." Rikka shut up mid-sentence. The little watermelon robot moved quickly. With an efficiency several times their number, it quickly picked up the pieces, leaving not even a single crumb left.
Rikka, who originally planned to continue preaching to Ash, didn't know what to say.
But unlike Ash who showed little expression, Regina still couldn't understand their active requests for help.
"Why did Mana take the initiative to help? He has obviously been forgiven."
"This is mainly because of my mood." Seeing Regina take the initiative to ask for advice from him, Ai began to preach to Regina with sincere words. "Even if you can't restore it to the way it was, at least do what you can."
"But my instruction to Ash to remove the gem has nothing to do with you Mana."
"Of course because we are already friends?" Following Ai's words, Rikka promptly provided an assist.
"Is it because we are companions that we have to share joys and sorrows together?" Thinking of Ash's previous words, Regina felt that he seemed to feel something.
"Regina You understand this very well!"
"But if your friend is like Mana, it will be very hard for him to bear all the troubles of others."
"Rikka Stop saying that, I'm sorry."
At this point, several girls laughed around Ai, and even Ai himself couldn't help but laugh. For them, who now know each other well as friends, maintaining and enjoying such a beautiful friendship is also a part of their happy daily life.
But Regina's state of mind fluctuated after seeing this scene, and this fluctuation gradually expanded, setting off strange waves in the black sea of soul.
I feel so uncomfortable, but I also seem to be very happy.
It turns out that this is a true friend?
Looking back at Ash, the man raised his finger and gave her a "long on me, short on me" gesture.
Even Ash is encouraging me... I see. I understand.
I don't just want to be friends with Mana, I want to be friends with everyone!
"I want to too..."
"I also want to be like Mana and become friends with everyone!"
When she made up her mind to shout out what was on her mind, she saw four people looking at her with smiles.
"Regina is already our friend."
Not only did he always show his love to her, but Rikka, Arisu, and even Makoto also nodded to her.
"Yes, so Ash-sensei."
"No need, it's enough for me to be an old enemy."
"KORA!"
Seeing the scene where Mana was noisy with Ash again, Regina understood.
So this is a friend?
At the moment when the girl who was originally in darkness confirmed her mind, a soaring red light rose from the gem in Ash's hand!
Chapter 56: Mutations caused by gems
"What kind of light is this!?"
While everyone else was surprised by this scene, Ash narrowed his eyes slightly. Wrapped in the light, the gem with a plastic feel and Bandai's water-like texture began to gradually change its appearance, abandoning its original plastic texture and becoming as gorgeous as a finely crafted carving. Its translucent texture shimmered with transformed red light.
Long-term experience made him understand that this probably means that it has changed from the original unlocked state to a usable state, and now this piece of Royal Jewels has become more worthy of its name.
It seems that as he vaguely guessed, Regina, who appears as an enemy, is not the kind of bad guy who is deeply evil at heart, otherwise he would not have caused this idealistic phenomenon through friendship.
Looking at Regina, Master Princess was also surprised by this scene, and seemed not to realize that he had caused this scene.
"This is the real Royal Jewels (Royal Crystal)!"
The girls' eyes were attracted by the light of the gem. When the gem gradually revealed its true form, the girls quickly came over to check the situation.
"It turns out it's true."
"Ara, it's incredible."
While the girls were sighing, Ash, who quickly adjusted his mentality, raised the gem and pointed it at the sun, observing its internal structure through the light refracted by the bright sunlight in the translucent gem.
"It doesn't look like a magic stone, and it doesn't look like something extraordinary. It's probably just as interesting as the blue thief."
"Are there any thieves looking at this?"
"Yes, that blue thief might also target your elves."
"Eh————!"
The frightened girls hurriedly covered their partner elves, and looked around with the elf who was also sweating, fearing that the mysterious blue thief Ash said would emerge from somewhere and steal their friends away.
The vengeful Ash spared no effort to slander someone's reputation across the world, and Ash felt that he was not lying, because if it was the thief Rider, he might really do this.
"We will be very troubled if we are targeted by thieves!" The girl quickly tightened her pockets and breathed a sigh of relief after making sure that all the gems they collected were still there.
"So, if you collect this thing, you will unlock an enhanced form after collecting it all?"
After all, in order to sell toys to the audience in front of the TV, collecting various small props and then unlocking big props is the tradition of O-Pictures, and you must taste it.
"There is no such setting anymore!"
"Is that to unlock the final form in one go?"
"What is the final form? Pretty Cure's transformation itself is already the final form."
Why do you always care about this kind of thing?
Regina, who had a very happy day today, didn't care much about Royal Jewels at first. No matter how precious the gem was to her, it was just a gift for those who love her. But when she saw the red gem in its true form, Regina couldn't take her eyes away from it.
She instinctively felt that there seemed to be some kind of invisible and intangible connection between herself and the gem. Her feet moved unconsciously and she moved closer to Ash. She stared at the gem, and her originally blue eyes like sea water gradually turned into a heart-stopping red color.
Now, Regina, who was still happy about the friendship he gained, has only one thought in his mind.