Recaps

Makoto overcame her doubts, awakened new power as Cure Sword, and fought Ash after he transformed into Another Ryuga. Ash repeatedly overpowered her and challenged her belief that the person she once knew was his true self, leaving Makoto shaken as the battle continued.

• Makoto remembered how her singing had encouraged Princess and resolved to sing for everyone who loved her and for herself.
• Makoto awakened as Cure Sword and challenged Ash, who transformed into Another Ryuga and clashed with her.
• Cure Sword fought Ash with her Heart Arrow, but he reflected her arrows and struck back using Kamen Rider Blade’s power.
• Ash told Makoto he hurt people because he was bored, then attacked her with a lightning-powered finishing move.
• Makoto said she wanted to bring back Ash’s true self, but Ash questioned whether the Ash she remembered had ever been real.
• Makoto launched Pretty Cure Sparkle Sword at Ash.

Makoto defeated Ash’s Another Ryuga form, but Ash tricked her into thinking he had returned to normal and captured her. She woke imprisoned in a golden birdcage and learned that Daby had changed her into a revealing gown.

• Makoto misled Ash with the Heart Arrow, grappled him, and used his Blay Rouzer to damage his Another Rider armor.
• Makoto fought Ash at close range, used a lightning slash, and stabbed his Ziku-Driver, destroying it and apparently restoring him.
• Ash praised Makoto before secretly threatening her with the Heart Arrow and shooting her with black light.
• Ash carried Makoto away as black energy flowed from her into him, then declared that he had won and would take his spoils.
• Makoto woke in a golden birdcage and saw Ash receiving praise from his subordinates for capturing Cure Sword.
• Ash revealed that Makoto’s gown had been specially prepared, and Daby admitted that he had changed her clothes.

Ash kept Makoto captive at the Selfish Organization’s headquarters and pressured her to sing for him, while Arisu tried to ease the tension. Makoto learned that the producer who stole her voice had turned himself in and that Mirai’s idol career might suffer, leaving her furious at Ash for setting events in motion.

• Arisu reassured Makoto that things were not so bad with Ash, while Makoto demanded to know why she had been locked in a cage.
• Ash explained that he wanted Makoto to sing for him, but she refused unless he released her.
• Ash told Makoto that the producer who stole her voice had turned himself in and that Mirai might lose her chance to continue as an idol.
• Makoto blamed Ash for enabling the producer, and Ash admitted he had given him the means to control the Jikochu.
• Ash opened Makoto’s cage, caught her as she fell, and placed her on his lap while she protested and Arisu advised him to consider her feelings.

Aida Ai’s grief over Ash taking Arisu and Makoto drove her to fight him before she and Rikka were ready. After Rikka awakened a powerful defensive light to save Ai, Ash defeated them and left Ai facing the consequences of her recklessness.

• Rikka confronted Aida Ai about blaming herself for Arisu and Makoto’s capture, but Ai lashed out at her and they argued.
• Rikka collided with Ash, and Ai transformed into Cure Heart and attacked him before they could call ACE.
• Ash transformed into Another Ryuga and quickly defeated Cure Heart and Rikka, then sent Another Dark Dragreder to attack Ai.
• Rikka found the strength to shield Ai with an indestructible diamond light and drive Another Dark Dragreder back, then collapsed into Ash’s arms.
• Ash carried the unconscious Rikka away and told Ai that her recklessness had led to this bad end and that she had protected nothing.

Ash defeated Aida Mana and captured Rikka, while concealing the pain and danger caused by Dark Echo. At the Selfish Organization base, Arisu reassured Makoto that the Pretty Cure could hold to their convictions, and Rikka woke to learn Mana was safe but might not be able to become a Pretty Cure again.

• Ash scolded and defeated Cure Heart, leaving Aida Mana in tears before he staggered away with Rikka as Dark Echo warnings appeared.
• Arisu told Makoto that Ash’s arguments did not invalidate the Pretty Cure’s ideals and that they should stay true to what they believed.
• Ash returned to the base with unconscious Rikka, and Makoto took her from him after asking if he was all right.
• Rakel joined Daby and Lance in the fairy room, where Lance offered him a doughnut bought by Arisu.
• Rikka woke at the base and worried about Aida Mana, then Ash told her Mana was unharmed but might never become a proper Pretty Cure again.

Ash forced Rikka to change into a maid outfit and made her, Ira, and Mamoru serve as cleaners at his base. Meanwhile, Aguri explained that the Three Divine Instruments might defeat Ash but required every Pretty Cure to undertake a trial, while Ai remained withdrawn at home.

• Ash sent Rikka to change into a maid outfit, appointed her Head Maid, and assigned Ira and Mamoru to work under her.
• Aguri told Ai that the Three Divine Instruments could help defeat Ash, but obtaining them required every Pretty Cure to be present for a special trial.
• Aguri warned Ai that her dispirited state would prevent her from earning a divine instrument's recognition.
• Ai's parents worried as she shut herself in her room, and Regina returned to ask whether she was still like that.
• Ai remained isolated in her bedroom, exhausted and staring blankly at the ceiling.

Ai nearly surrendered to Ash, but Regina and Ai-chan comforted her and helped her regain the resolve to fight for herself, her friends, and Ash. Meanwhile, Rikka noticed Ash growing increasingly tired and followed him, finding him in a vast darkness.

• Ai asked Sharuru whether surrendering to Ash would make him forgive her, and said she would offer herself in exchange for her friends' freedom.
• Regina embraced Ai and reminded her that she still had friends, while Ai-chan comforted her; Regina then volunteered to go to Ash's lair.
• Ai realized Ash wanted to face the determined Cure Heart, not a defeated Aida Mana, and declared that she would fight to save herself, everyone, and Ash.
• Marmo, Makoto, Rikka, and Arisu played cards while discussing their captivity and how Ash had recently been sparring with them less and growing gentler.
• Ash returned, said he was tired, and went to rest; Rikka followed him after noticing his increasing sleepiness.
• Ash opened his eyes in a place surrounded by darkness with nowhere to stand.

Ash refused the system’s warning to stop fighting despite the danger of Dark Echo eroding his mind and memories. While he slept, Rikka was urged to kill him to save the world, but she rejected the demand and confronted Ash after he woke.

• Ash learned that Dark Echo had reached capacity and that continuing to fight could break his mind and erase his memories of the world.
• Ash rejected his younger self’s plea to stop, shot him, and insisted he had not had enough fun in the Pretty Cure world.
• Rikka saw a panel asking her to save Ash and was given a sword with instructions to kill him.
• The panel revealed that the Jikochu Progenitor’s true body was inside Ash and would return stronger if she did not act.
• Rikka refused to kill Ash and threw the sword away, then Ash woke and teased her for resisting the panel’s demand.
• Rikka angrily asked Ash why he was so indifferent to the danger and to her feelings.

Ash released the captured girls after agreeing with Ai to fight Pretty Cure once they gained greater power. As the girls prepared for the trial and Regina returned to Ash’s base, she found Ira and Marmo there instead of Ash.

• Ai asked Ash to return her friends, promising that Pretty Cure would gain new power and fight him; Ash agreed and declared that he would not lose.
• Makoto, Arisu, Rikka, Aguri, and Regina reunited with Ai, while Ash secretly photographed them from the Mirror World.
• Rikka told the girls that King of Jikochu had ambushed Ash to seize his body, prompting them to consider whether his actions and worsening condition were connected to another being.
• Ai insisted Pretty Cure could find a miracle to save Ash, and the girls agreed to complete the trial and face him; Regina took the Ryuga Card Deck to seek another solution.
• Regina returned to Ash’s lavishly renovated base and encountered Ira and Marmo, who mocked her as a traitor and told her she was unwelcome.

Regina visited Ash and asked him to help her see her father, while Ash struggled with a strange influence affecting his thoughts. After the Pretty Cure girls battled Miran for the Crystal Mirror, Regina learned where to find the Spear of Light, which might help her save Ash.

• Ira and Marmo bullied Regina until Ash woke up, punished them, and welcomed her with a bottle of Oronamin C.
• Regina gave Ash snacks and asked him to help her see the King of Jikochu, and Ash agreed.
• Ash noticed a strange change in himself and insisted that no one could control his journey.
• The Pretty Cure girls fought Miran, who had transformed into a dragon, to earn her approval and obtain the Crystal Mirror.
• Regina spoke with the original Poker King inside the statue, who directed her to the Spear of Light beneath Poker Kingdom as a way to help Ash.

Regina found the Spear of Light in the Poker Kingdom and regained power greater than before, then confronted Ash and confessed that she liked the kind version of him. She escaped through the Mirror World to reach Ai and the others, while Ash followed, and Ai explained to Miran that they wanted to fight him awake.

• Levi sneaked into the Poker Kingdom, concluded that the Jikochu Progenitor was still alive inside Ash, and considered how to awaken it.
• Regina found the Spear of Light in the basement and used it to regain strength beyond her former power.
• Ash confronted Regina, and Regina told him she liked the kind, strong version of him and did not want him to act this way.
• Regina used the Ryuga Card Deck to enter the Mirror World and head for Ai and the others, while Ash chased after her.
• Ai told Miran that Ash was in a strange state and that she and the others needed to beat him awake.

The Pretty Cure girls obtained the Crystal Mirror while Joe returned with the Golden Crown, and they discovered that Ash had appeared from another world. Aguri used the crown to uncover a truth linking her, Regina, and Ai-chan, but the chapter ended as the memories revealed the Jikochu Progenitor's influence on the Poker Kingdom's princess.

• The Pretty Cure girls completed Miran's trial and received the Crystal Mirror, while Joe found the Golden Crown in ancient ruins with Princess Ann's guidance.
• Ai tried to use the Golden Crown and Crystal Mirror but neither responded, and Arisu showed footage proving Ash had appeared at school out of nowhere.
• Aguri connected Ash's arrival and his ability to summon heroes to journeys between worlds, then touched the Golden Crown and saw memories of her origins.
• Regina escaped Ash's pursuit, met Aguri, and revealed that she had obtained the Spear of Light; Aguri insisted they first address a matter involving Regina, herself, and Ai-chan.
• Regina touched the Golden Crown and saw that the legendary Pretty Cure had sealed the Jikochu Progenitor beneath the Poker Kingdom, but a fragment of its darkness later escaped and infected the princess.

Regina and Aguri learned how Princess Ann split her Ling Shen Xin into light and shadow, then fought to decide which of them would reunite it and help save Ash. Ash interrupted their battle and challenged their belief that fate required them to fight, leaving the two girls working together against him.

• Aguri revealed that Regina, Aguri, and Ai-chan had originated as Princess Ann, whose Ling Shen Xin was split after her father became the King of Jikochu.
• Regina and Aguri agreed to battle, with the winner promising to join the Pretty Cure, defeat the Jikochu Progenitor, and bring Ash back.
• Regina and Cure Ace fought fiercely in an uninhabited suburb while Ai-chan cried and made them hesitate.
• Ash burst into the battlefield, stopped their attacks, and questioned why they thought fate required them to defeat each other.
• Ash attacked the girls, and Regina and Cure Ace defended themselves together, bickering as they stood side by side.

Regina, Aguri, and Ai-chan reunited through a miracle to become Angie, who transformed into a crimson Kamen Rider and overwhelmed Ash in battle. Angie urged him to stop fighting, but Ash rejected defeat and launched one last attack.

• Regina and Aguri held hands with Ai-chan, whose spell united them as Angie, Princess of Poker Kingdom.
• Angie explained that she was a combination of Regina’s and Aguri’s spirits and consciousness with Ai-chan’s power, then transformed using the Ryuga Card Deck.
• Angie fought Ash with the Spear of Light and Ryuga abilities, repeatedly overpowering and injuring him.
• Angie pointed her spear at Ash and asked him to give her the Ridewatch, warning that transforming again would break his body.
• Ash refused to admit defeat, summoned Another Dark Dragreder, and attacked Angie while she challenged him about fighting without love.

Angie defeated Ash as Another Ryuga, then reunited with the Pretty Cure girls and explained how she had split into Aguri, Regina, and Ai. Ash survived the battle and disappeared for weeks, but as Ai prepared to visit her dog’s grave, she and Sharuru spotted a strange creature flying through the sky.

• Angie fired Ace Shot and washed away Another Ryuga’s darkness, while Ash fell into a lake after the battle.
• Angie reunited with Makoto, Joe-san, and the other Pretty Cure girls, explaining the Golden Crown’s revelations and how Aguri, Regina, and Ai were parts of her.
• Angie separated into Aguri and Regina, leaving Ai asleep in Joe-san’s arms; the girls questioned whether Ash and the Jikochu Progenitor had truly been defeated.
• Ash emerged alive from a river in Oogai City, noticed his body and mind had calmed, and vowed to face Pretty Cure again.
• Weeks later, Regina returned to the Poker Kingdom, where the King of Jikochu’s body had vanished, while Ai worried about Ash and prepared to visit Maro’s grave.
• Ai and Sharuru saw an unnatural creature flying through the sky.

Ash agreed to help the fairies rescue Mana and the others, who had been trapped in Matthew’s memory world aboard a giant whale made from discarded objects. He infiltrated the whale and fought its self-reassembling scrap soldiers, but had not yet found the captured Pretty Cure.

• Matthew’s giant whale abducted people into a memory world, and Beruru explained to Ash that he sought to imprison humanity in the past and steal its future.
• Mana woke beside her deceased grandmother and her dog Malo, believing she had regained the happy past she lost.
• The fairies told Ash that the whale had taken Mana, Rikka, and their companions’ parents, and Ash agreed to help rescue them before settling his own score with the Pretty Cure.
• Ash jumped from Oogai Tower, landed inside the whale, and confronted Matthew, who ordered his soldiers to attack the intruder who had bullied Mana.
• Ash blasted and slashed through waves of scrap soldiers, then fled when their pieces began reassembling and searched the whale for the captured Pretty Cure.
• Ash found a warehouse filled with neatly arranged film reels and asked Beruru whether Matthew liked movies.

Ash and the fairies searched for the film reels containing the Pretty Cure’s memories, then confronted Matthew, who trapped the girls in idealized versions of their past. Ash sent the fairies into the memories so the girls could choose for themselves, but Matthew turned Ash into a reel and projected him into a memory.

• Ash and the fairies discovered that the reels held the memories of people trapped in happy dreams, and Beruru challenged Ash about how he treated Mana.
• Matthew confronted Ash and condemned him for making Mana suffer, then showed the girls happily reliving cherished moments from their pasts.
• Ash argued that only the girls could decide whether their memories were happiness or misfortune, and sent Sharuru and the other fairies into their partners’ memories.
• Matthew sent his subordinates after the fairies and blasted Ash, turning him into a film reel that Matthew placed on a projector.
• Ash’s consciousness was pulled into a memory as an unseen voice called his name.

Ash, a gifted but easily bored sixth grader, handled a classroom challenge and fought off older students who attacked him, then endured his parents’ anger after the school reported the incident. The chapter left him happily watching Kamen Rider and sketching plans for a real Kamen Rider project, though he decided to postpone the difficult parts.

• Ash woke in math class, solved the teacher’s advanced problems, and was kept after school to clean for talking back.
• Ash’s jealous classmate brought three middle school students to confront him, but Ash used improvised tactics to knock them down and sent the classmate to take out the garbage.
• Ash returned home to find his father scolding him over the school’s report, and his parents noticed the handprints left by the bullies.
• Ash told his parents what had happened, prompting his father to grow furious, then went to his room worried that his father might confront the school.
• Ash watched Kamen Rider, wrote ideas in his Kamen Rider Project notebook, and set aside his plans to develop transformation technology until he was older.

Ash remembered how his love of heroes began, rejected Matthew’s attempt to trap him in an idealized past, and broke out of his memory. He entered Makoto’s illusion to help her fight, leaving her and ACE facing the giant doll monster as familiar gunfire sounded.

• Ash recalled his lonely childhood and his longing for superheroes, then thanked Matthew for giving him the chance to travel through worlds of heroes.
• Ash addressed Matthew through the screen, revealed that he valued his present more than his past, and smashed his way out of the memory.
• Ash entered Makoto’s illusion, where Makoto rejected the fake Princess and fought the dolls as Cure Sword.
• Makoto and ACE fought the mannequin monster together, but it absorbed the dolls and transformed into a giant that overwhelmed them.
• As Makoto and ACE prepared to keep fighting, familiar gunfire struck the monster and Makoto called out Ash’s name.

Ash arrived during Makoto and Aguri’s battle and summoned Kamen Rider Blade, whose partnership with Makoto helped defeat the giant puppet. Elsewhere, Rikka and Arisu rejected their false memories and fought a fused monster, relying on lessons from Ash as the battle continued.

• Ash appeared at Makoto and Aguri’s fight, summoned Kamen Rider Blade, and urged Makoto to battle alongside him.
• Makoto and Blade transformed into their stronger forms and coordinated their attacks with Aguri to destroy the giant puppet.
• Aguri rejoiced that Ash was alive, and she and Makoto agreed to save the others before waking him.
• Ash watched Rikka and Arisu resist their past memories and fight a fused clock-and-unicycle monster.
• Rikka and Arisu recalled Ash’s combat lessons and attacked the monster together, but it prepared to strike both of them at once.

Rikka and Arisu defeated the fused monster and reunited with Ash, who remained uncertain about his restored self and hurried toward Ai’s past. Ai found the strength to leave her memories behind, while Ash faced an apparent illusion at his house.

• Rikka and Arisu used their coordinated attacks to destroy the fused monster, then reunited with Ash and welcomed him back.
• Rikka asked Ash whether he would stop fighting, but he admitted he did not know who he was and ran toward Ai’s world; Arisu reminded him that they had not forgiven him.
• Matthew trapped Ai in a repeating past where Maro and her grandmother died whenever she tried to leave, and Ai began to doubt whether she wanted to return to the painful future.
• Ai’s grandmother explained the meaning of her name and urged her to carry their love forward, helping Ai decide to return to her friends.
• Ai transformed back into Pretty Cure, said goodbye to her grandmother and Maro, and set out to pass on the love she had inherited.
• Ash dismissed the memories confronting him at his house, but noticed that his reflection showed him as he looked at twenty years old.

Matthew trapped the Pretty Cure in a dream of their happy memories, but they broke free and saw Ash enjoying a surprise birthday party with heroes from across worlds. Beruru revealed Ash's painful childhood, and Matthew attacked the girls after Ai recognized him as Marlow, the forgotten boy represented by her pendant.

• Ash returned home expecting an empty house, but his parents and friends surprised him with a birthday party.
• Mana and the other Pretty Cure rejected Matthew's offer to live forever in their memories and broke free of his illusion.
• Matthew showed the girls Ash celebrating his eighteenth birthday with heroes from across worlds, and Beruru told them about his lonely, unhappy childhood.
• The girls realized they had never truly understood Ash, while Matthew grew jealous that Mana cared about him despite claiming not to need memories.
• Matthew transformed into a giant hound and attacked the girls, and Ai recognized the pendant on him and realized he was Marlow.

Ai admitted how she had hurt her friends and apologized to Marlo, whose anger faded as he returned to his small-dog form. Meanwhile, Ash remained trapped in a birthday dream until he suddenly used his Signal Axe to attack the people around him.

• Marlo wounded Ai, but she embraced him and admitted she understood his resentment over being forgotten.
• Ai apologized for taking her friends’ affection for granted and promised never to forget Marlo; her sincerity restored him to his small-dog form.
• The girls learned that Ash’s dream could not be stopped once it had begun, and Rikka saw the dream’s birthday celebration on the screen.
• Ash accepted gifts from his friends and believed he could finally stop fighting and live peacefully.
• Ash inserted his Signal Motorbike into the Signal Axe, then used its finisher to decapitate the nearest figure at the party.

Ash realized that the birthday celebration was an illusion and destroyed the mannequins and dolls around him, while Ai entered the scene to save him. Ash then recalled the Jikochu Progenitor inside him and listened as Ai confronted him about how it had twisted his choices.

• Ash recognized the happy birthday gathering as a false world and used his weapons to smash the figures celebrating him.
• Ash demanded that the heroes stop him, but no one responded, and he destroyed the remaining dolls with his combined weapons.
• Ai shook off Rikka’s attempt to hold her back and promised to bring Ash back before leaping into the screen.
• Ash’s rage faded when he imagined Ai and the others among his victims, and he asked the system what was inside him.
• The system explained that the Jikochu Progenitor had escaped inside Ash and influenced him through his Core Medal.
• Ai told Ash she had come to save him and confronted him about the Progenitor’s influence and his wager involving Rikka, Arisu, Makoto, and the others.

Aida Mana pulled Ash out of his despair, and he resolved to keep fighting before they escaped the collapsing memory world. Back in reality, Ash confronted Maro and then the speaking clarinet that had manipulated him, approaching it with murderous intent.

• Ash tried to kill himself, but Cure Heart knocked away the Soul Steel Sword and Aida Mana slapped him and challenged him to keep living.
• After remembering his promise to Him, Ash declared that his battle was not over and asked Mana to help him up.
• Ash and Mana broke through the barrier together and returned to the others, where Makoto slapped Ash and the group argued with him.
• Ash demanded to know who had manipulated Maro, and Maro admitted that he had been responsible.
• A battered speaking clarinet emerged from the whale's heart and accused Maro of being Matthew, but Maro insisted that he was Maro.
• Ash approached the clarinet with an iron pipe and threatened to kill it, frightening the entity.