Ash stared fixedly at Nono Hana until she was practically bristling like a cat. Only then did the delinquent doctor in the white coat finally withdraw his gaze, pull a golden fountain pen from who knew where, and scribble a string of medicinal ingredient names onto the rice paper before him.
Fortunately, Ash did not suspect her much. In his mind, although this woman's various reactions were rather amusing, was there really any need to waste his extra energy investigating an ordinary person so thoroughly?
At this moment, Ash's attention was focused more on Cure Yell, who had only just begun to shine in his eyes. He was like a connoisseur with exacting standards for the stage, who had suddenly discovered a treasure of an actor perfectly suited to his tastes, gleaming brilliantly onstage in some unremarkable Broadway theater.
To put it exaggeratedly, the excitement brought by meeting Cure Yell had practically left him unable to eat or drink. Her flower-like, incomplete yet spirited presence had quietly entered and occupied the part of his mind that had once felt "bored," to the point where he even met her in his dreams.
"Well, that's about it."
With a flourish, he finished the last character. After spinning the gold-tipped pen inscribed with "Hoshikawa Gakuto" twice between his fingers, he tossed it into the air, and it landed with astonishing precision in the pocket over his chest.
After handing the prescription to Nono Hana, Ash casually picked up Cure Yell's Hottoys figure. He kept moving the doll's limbs with both hands, striking all kinds of cool combat poses with it while quietly making "whoosh-ha" sound effects with his mouth.
Dr. Ash, entertaining himself, did not notice Nono Hana watching from the side. As if she had discovered some rare and delightful delicacy, Hana could not help revealing a maternal smile bright enough to make flowers bloom.
"You almost kicked the bucket not long ago, and now you've ignored my advice and gone doing intense exercise again, haven't you?"
While shamelessly playing with "another version of himself," Ash spewed venomous words that gradually froze Hana's smile. "Do you really want to compete with someone over who gets a second chance at life? If that's what you want, then next time that big monster shows up, just crawl under its feet."
"That's so mean... After Dr. Ash left last time, a Doomsday Monster suddenly attacked that place. Of course I ran for my life to survive, right?" The smile on her face became a dissatisfied pout as she answered Ash's question with indignant little "pugu-pugu" noises.
"I wasn't blaming you. You just had surgery, so I won't torture you anymore. Go pick up the medicine yourself from the herbal room next door according to the prescription... Oh, wait."
He raised a hand and swatted away Hana's reaching hand, pulled the prescription back with the doll, then glanced up at the woman wearing a blank ovo expression. He added several brain-nourishing herbs to the end of the list. "Now it's fine."
"W-Wait!" Pulling herself out of her inexplicable delight, Hana clutched the prescription Ash handed her and began to panic. "Isn't Ash the doctor? Why does the patient have to pick up her own medicine?"
Besides, wasn't there an assistant, a nurse, or anything like that in such a big clinic?
"It's my break time." Still fiddling with the Yell figure in his hands, Ash maintained an utterly "innocent" smile, but the more Hana looked at it, the creepier it seemed. "Writing you a prescription already counts as a friendship service, so pick up the medicine yourself. Everything is written on the list clearly enough."
"Um..."
Looking at the prescription in her hands, Nono Hana felt like crying without tears.
These things that looked neither like words nor ghostly scribbles were beyond even a Pretty Cure's comprehension!
"Dr. Ash." With a regretful sigh, Hana first put the prescription into her bag. Tugging awkwardly at her overly tight pencil skirt, she stood up from across from him and looked toward Ash.
"Actually, there's one more thing I'd like to ask—"
The rest of her request caught in Nono Hana's throat because what she saw before her was truly a little too shocking for her brain.
Ash, who was playing with his toy before her, apparently was not satisfied with merely handling it. With an appraising gaze, the man directly spread its legs apart, raised the doll over his head, and looked up at it from below.
"Hmm... Could there be some hidden weapons? Like a rocket launcher, concealed extra limbs, or perhaps a scissor anchor?"
"No, Pretty Cure skirts couldn't possibly have things like that underneath them. Dr. Ash, you're overthinking it. Hahaha."
"Is that so? How boring. I thought I'd see something interesting."
Hahaha, Dr. Ash really was like a little kid playing with toys—No, wait, what are you doing?!
Wait, you... Are you looking under the toy's skirt? Y-You, what are you doing in front of the real person?!
For some reason, Nono Hana involuntarily began imagining herself at normal size, forced to lift her short skirt in shame and discomfort to display the "scenery" beneath it to an interested Ash...
"Bzzzt~"
Nono Hana's brain and pale cheeks urgently issued an overheating warning.
No! Even if I wear safety shorts underneath after transforming, I can't just let a man see them so casually! Not women either! No, no, no!
Extra Case File 28: Nono Hana's Request
When I first saw Dr. Ash so fascinated with another me, I had even felt a little happy to be acknowledged.
Now, though, my feelings were becoming increasingly complicated. What an unpredictable development.
In front of someone of the opposite sex, watching him play with a highly detailed, articulated figure of another me and brazenly look under its skirt—more importantly, the real person he didn't know was right beside him, and he was becoming more and more unrestrained in both action and gaze without caring about my stare at all—don't casually destroy the image of Dr. Ash, the man who saved my life, cared about me, and was still rather impressive in my heart!!!
A scorching sense of shame roiled and burned violently within Hana. Nono Hana would rather go out and fight a hundred and eighty Doomsday Monsters to the death than endure this unusual torture.
Wait, why are you starting to pull at the doll's clothes now? How far are you planning to strip "me," hey?!
"Eh... What? The skirt and clothes can't be removed? The craftsmanship is pretty detailed, so why doesn't it even have such a small function?"
Only when Nono Hana's eyes had nearly bulged out of their sockets, and the doll was nearly ruined in Ash's hands from reaching its durability limit, did he finally stop.
"If we're talking about a review, the articulation and likeness are excellent. The clothes feel close to real fabric, and even the effect parts and battle-damage replacements are faithfully reproduced. I'd give it around an eight."
Rubbing his smooth chin, Ash seriously transformed into a toy review video host.
"Although this Cure Yell figure has craftsmanship so meticulous it hardly seems normal, and the clothes on her body are not made of soft plastic or separate molded material but genuine collector-grade textiles, however!"
Speaking in a dissatisfied tone, Ash tugged at the doll's clothes, his face full of unfulfilled displeasure.
"Why are they completely glued onto the body and impossible to remove? Was there any point in not making the inner construction?"
"Oh, and that SHF version is industrial-grade garbage. Don't buy it." (The author has personally experienced this; it is a true example.)
"Even if you say that..."
She had originally wanted to loudly condemn his "perverted" behavior, but Ash was currently playing with "her" with such a serious expression and had even begun reviewing the figure. His matter-of-fact attitude left even Nono Hana unsure what to say for a moment.
"Th-That kind of function couldn't possibly exist on a figure, right?"
Nono Hana helplessly stated the obvious, but received only an odd look from Ash.
"Hm, it doesn't? The articulated figures I bought from the Interstellar Alliance in the past could all be taken apart. You could even use them as surgical props for dissection. As long as you put them back together, they could still move on their own."
"Sorry Pretty Cure merchandise isn't to your taste..."
So where exactly were you buying things to end up with that misunderstanding...? More importantly, what kind of secondhand market was the Interstellar Alliance supposed to be? That was way too impressive for a storefront sign!
Seriously, how could proper products possibly meet your kind of demands? Forget being removable—even if a company dared release something remotely suggestive, Pretty Cure's devoted fans would have already torn them apart...
"If you want that kind of removable product, you can't get it through legitimate markets. You'd need to go to a collectors' market."
The kind of shameful removable item you're talking about would of course only be sold by shady studios, like the one on the table at my house... Wait, I said—I said it out loud?!
"Oh, is that so?" Nono Hana's brain lagged half a beat, and her neck turned with the grinding sound of stuck gears. To her surprise, Ash actually looked quite interested. "I see. So it's something like the black market? How classic!"
"D-Dr. Ash, are you really planning to go?! T-To buy Cure Yell's shameful, shameful—"
"Of course." He answered without hesitation, paying no attention to Hana's increasingly red and twisted expression as he swept his right hand generously over all the Yell-series figures behind him. "And I'll buy three: one for collecting, one for display, and one for preaching!"
She was this world's hero, after all. I should add her to my collection as well. Hehehe!
"Guh, just kill me..."
"Making such weird noises—does something hurt again?"
Ash gave Nono Hana, who had inexplicably begun writhing around, a strange glance and finally put down the doll in his hand.
Since he could not sleep anyway, wasn't it time to do something productive?
"All right, I wasn't counting on you in the first place. You said you couldn't read it, right? If you don't know, just follow me to pick up the medicine later."
Seeing Nono Hana breathe a relieved sigh and pat her chest as though she had been granted a pardon, Ash brought up what she had mentioned earlier.
"Go on. What was the thing you wanted to ask me about?"
"Eh, Doctor remembered—Ow, that hurts!"
Seeing Nono Hana crouched on the floor with her head covered and her body trembling slightly, Ash confidently withdrew his bent finger and gave an arrogant hum.
"Don't question your doctor. I'm not like ordinary people such as you. I'm a genius!"
"Sorry... Being a genius is really amazing..."
"All right, stop fooling around. Tell me. If it's too troublesome or boring, I won't go."
Muttering, "Dr. Ash is the one fooling around," Nono Hana told him everything.
Though calling it her problem was not entirely accurate. More precisely, it was the problem of her friend Kagayaki Homare, the girl in the wheelchair.
"Ever since that encounter with Time Fire!" When mentioning Time Fire, Hana snorted in angry disdain. "Homare has become a little strange. At first, we thought she was depressed because she had been dealt a blow, so we wanted to comfort her... But it seems it isn't that. Rather, it's—"
"Oh? So you want me to look after her?"
"Yes. Ash is an amazing doctor, after all, and Homare's main issue is her legs, so..."
He still had some impression of that blonde woman named Homare. On a whim, he had encouraged her in a forceful, accelerated way to see whether she could grow. The result had disappointed him, but she had drawn out Cure Yell and surprised him, so it had not been a bad result overall.
But judging from what Hana was saying, had she grown in a place where he could not see?
"Of course, if she's still like that, she won't be interesting to me..."
"Um, Dr. Ash?" Hana asked carefully. "If it's trouble for Dr. Ash, then you don't have to..."
"No."
Ash stood up.
"I never said I wasn't willing."
Extra Case File 29: Can a Clumsy Girl Become Someone to Admire?
"Here, take it... Honestly, I have to do even this myself."
Despite his complaining, Ash's hands worked without error as he took the medicinal ingredients prepared to nourish her body from the drawers in the storage room. He felt rather unmotivated now. In the past, whenever he demonstrated his skills in other dark organizations, hadn't he always received treatment worthy of executive-level talent?
Normally, all he needed to do was make plans, conduct evil research, and perform modification surgeries. Menial tasks with no technical value, such as fetching materials and equipment to assist him, should have been left to brainless grunts. Why did he have to do them personally?
Ah... Such a hassle. I didn't think so when I wasn't dwelling on it, but now that I think about it, it feels incredibly troublesome. When I opened this clinic on a whim, I only thought that being idle was boring. I never expected anyone to come through the door... Now that it feels troublesome, my whole body is getting lazy.
But if we're talking about grunts... Hmm, the ones on the Rider side aren't convenient to carry around, Barmia Soldiers aren't actually very obedient, and the replicants I used most often were all expended in the previous world. Still, if I only need someone to assist me, I don't need to worry about dealing with combat power...
Come to think of it, there should still be several Genites in my inventory, right? Those things are convenient since you can build and repair them with screws. Right! I also have quite a few storage spheres containing Hole-Faced People. I bought some and stole some from that arms dealer Umbrella back then, so their quality should be guaranteed!
While Ash's lazy side erupted into full force and his thoughts ran wild, Nono Hana hurriedly caught the paper bag he tossed her and carefully wrapped it up with the handkerchief she had brought.
"Medicine, medicine, I've got everything—heave-ho!" After repeatedly checking the small medicine packets Ash had selected for her, Hana truly did not want to repeat the tragedy of carelessly flinging everything into the air and scattering it all over her own head.
Naturally, she trusted Ash's medical skills completely. Her increasingly weak body recovering its vigor so unbelievably was proof! Her organs no longer hurt so much she felt like dying, Tomorrow Energy was plentiful, and even her thinking had improved considerably. Her memory no longer failed her like it used to, making her forget things halfway through doing them.
Someone I once helped ended up helping me at a crucial moment. Perhaps, whether as Nono Hana or Cure Yell, I fought for things as simple and beautiful as that?
"Oh, Hana."
"Yes?"
Without even noticing that Ash had begun calling her directly by name without any honorific, Hana had been about to leave with him when he suddenly stopped her. She paused, hands having just patted her pale cheeks to bring some color back to them.
Not understanding why Ash had suddenly called her, Hana tilted her head. The ponytail trailing behind her tilted adorably in the same direction, while her bangs caught a sharp glint of light and revealed her right eye, which had always been hidden by her slightly curled hair.
At the same time, she felt Ash's frank gaze sweep across her from head to toe.
"The white shirt with your black skirt looks good." Ash naturally offered the compliment. "It looks much better than your previous simple outfit that made you look like an idiot. It suits you."
"Ah, um." Hana had not expected Ash to suddenly compliment her. She froze for a moment, then flusteredly patted her warming cheeks again. "Th-Thank you! I'm glad you like it!"
People said boys were not very good at noticing changes in girls, so although I changed my outfit, I didn't really have much hope... But he actually, actually complimented me... I'm a little happy!
"However."
Ash extended a finger and traced it downward, pointing at the split in the center of her pencil skirt. Beneath it, white fabric printed with cute cherry blossoms could faintly be seen.
"Your crotch is ripped."
"Ah, it really is! Hahaha~ I'm so sorry..."
Nono Hana hurriedly smiled apologetically and covered it with her hand, only then realizing exactly where Ash had said was exposed.
Wait...! That meant Dr. Ash had seen everything—
"Hana?"
Seeing Hana frozen in place with a smile on her face, Ash called out to her again, somewhat uncertainly. What answered him was the mechanical crack of her neck turning, along with a sorrowful smile on the verge of tears...
"No—way!"
Instinctively, Hana shouted the catchphrase of herself from another timeline.
I messed up... I messed up again...
I've finally reached the age I once wanted more than anything, but the goal of becoming the cool, mature big sister I've dreamed of being since childhood...
Is actually getting farther and farther away... Hahaha, this is such a blow...
"Homare, are you home?"
Standing before a residence with a nameplate reading [Kagayaki Residence], Hana rang the doorbell and awkwardly tugged at the somewhat loose pant leg around her leg.
Before you continue