Kamen Rider Is Playing the Villain in Pretty Cure

A heavy blow was close at hand!

Side Story Case File 38: Schemes in Battle

The beautiful, radiant swords in their hands reflected bodies and souls that had already become completely different.

Yet no matter how beautiful the words, they could not conceal the fact that their conflict had already escalated. The moment they made their moves, the battle became fierce!

Risking misjudging the distance and feeding herself to the other's blade, letting her cut off her own head, the bold yet careful Hana forced her way inside her opponent's guard with her sword. Seizing that opening, she threw a devastating upward punch that nearly set the air ablaze, determined to teach the bastard before her a profound lesson.

If that blow landed, unless the one inside that suit was a cyborg like Takeshi Hongo or someone with an iron jaw like Raiden, Ash would not merely lose a few teeth. His entire lower jaw would be blown away!

That was exactly what Hana intended. Do not blame her for being so cruel despite being a Pretty Cure; she understood that people like this had to be forced to calm down before they could be reasoned with. Besides, throughout the multiverse, compared to cute, soft healers, they were better known as "Legendary Warriors."

All right, just like this. Calm down for me! I'll use Tomorrow Energy to heal your injuries afterward—what?!

Just as she was about to hit him with a rising dragon punch, her sharp hearing caught a faint laugh from beneath the man's helmet. Rather than panicking, Ash smiled. His feet danced in nimble, unpredictable tap-dance-like steps, slipping past her rounded shoe. He angled his boot forward, then simply pushed ahead. Hana's attack path immediately changed.

In truth, Hana's seemingly successful all-out assault had played right into Ash's hands, as he specialized in defense and counterattacks!

Hana herself was even more shocked. She had never expected that attack, which had found an opening and should have been certain to land, to be deflected. My footing was clearly—

Her swaying legs could no longer bear the shift in her body weight and involuntarily slipped away in another direction. Only when her foot left the ground did Hana realize that the patch she had stepped on was wrong!

Unlike the thick concrete road built to support heavy trucks, the ground beneath Hana's feet kept sinking and slipping like a soft, rotten country dirt path. It had clearly been deliberately smashed up beforehand, which was why Ash had so easily kicked out her footing.

The reason she had stepped onto that ruined patch of ground was because she had closed the distance to launch her attack, planting her foot exactly where he had previously stood.

Hana, who was far less dull in battle than in everyday life, understood in an instant. That's it! He planned farther ahead than I did. He adapted to everything by remaining unchanged—he was actually waiting for this! I walked right into the trap he deliberately left open!

Though the furious girl fighting at full strength was powerful enough to rival many formidable warriors Ash had seen, Ash was by no means some ordinary weakling who had built his strength by bullying the helpless. As an opponent of righteous heroes, he had his own confidence and foundation. Otherwise, he would never have taken the initiative to provoke her.

Doing what one knew could not be done was the mark of a hero. But repeatedly dancing on the red line without restraint despite knowing better could only be called being a dumbass.

Fortunately, he knew how to keep dancing on that line without getting slapped to death. That gave him plenty of room to work with.

"Battle means thinking two, three, or even four steps ahead of your opponent!"

I deliberately showed weakness and exposed an opening, and you really took the bait!

The off-target rising punch grazed Ash's oval helmet, showering sparks beside his ear as it slid past. Faced with an opening his opponent had delivered herself, Ash naturally had no reason to let it go.

His toe hooked behind her heel, completely throwing her off balance. Ash immediately slid to her side like a ghost, lowered his body, and planted his left fist against his raised right wrist. With his tougher iron shoulder, he drove into her soft, exciting chest, as fluffy as a cotton cloud. This move was called—

Iron Mountain Lean!

"Guh—"

The moment Ash slammed into her, Hana's body bent like a broken branch. The girl, instantly folded into a shrimp-like arch, suffered a tremendous impact, and a few flecks of saliva coughed out from deep within her involuntarily opened mouth.

Her chest—her lungs hurt so badly, as though everything inside had been squeezed empty. Breathe, keep breathing! Stay conscious! I can't fall here!

But reality and the laws of physics could not be changed by thoughts alone. Under that incomparably heavy impact, Hana's weakened right hand let go, and the Melody Holy Sword was flung away. Her body was hurled hard back in the direction she had come from.

Before that happened, however, Hana desperately endured the strange pain running through her entire body and threw one final kick into Ash's shoulder. It changed the direction of her fall while also making Ash stagger.

"Heh, you can still counterattack on the spot at a time like this. Not bad."

Patting the shoeprint on his shoulder, Ash watched Cure Yell fly all the way into the playground behind her, kicking up a cloud of dust. That altered route also spared her from a follow-up barrage, and he nodded in approval.

His blood boiled, and his body heated up. Certain it was not over yet, Ash walked step by step toward where the Pretty Cure had fallen.

All right, what surprise would she give him next?

Homare withdrew her gaze and pushed her wheelchair. The courage and mood she had only just managed to recover were once again on the verge of plummeting to the bottom after seeing that awful person.

The fleeing crowd had separated her from Hana earlier. Now she looked around everywhere, but she could not find her no matter how hard she tried.

Hana would never leave me behind and run away alone. If we were merely separated, why had she not come back to find me? Could it be—

After Time Fire disappeared from here, Homare gathered her courage and wheeled herself toward the battlefield left behind by the fierce fight. Dust from the battle still hung in the air, and apart from twisted mechanical wreckage scattered across the ground, the scene looked as though a Tyrannosaurus Rex from the Jurassic era had trampled it over and over again.

Hana was not here either... Hana, where did Kotori go?! Could she have been caught up in the battle—

"Damn it—that Time Fire! What kind of new hero is he?! He's just a thug, isn't he?!"

Unable to endure her anger, she punched the armrest. Thinking of what might have happened to her friend, Homare continued onward stubbornly, her face pale and grim.

Even she, who had only dared to hide far away before, knew very well that an ordinary person would have no chance of surviving on such a terrifying battlefield.

That was precisely why she wanted even more desperately to find the slightest trace of the missing Hana.

"Hana—are you there?! Hana!"

She shouted her friend's name, but received no answer. Instead, a gleam of light illuminated her eyes.

Her sharp gaze spotted the sacred sword the Pretty Cure had been holding ahead of her. The sword was no longer in Hana's hand; half of it was embedded in a wall, glowing faintly as though waiting for someone to answer its call.

"The sword... is glowing?"

Is it calling to me?

"Clack—"

She wanted to move forward, but her wheelchair would not budge at all. When she tried harder and received only a stiff response, Homare realized it.

She was stuck.

Side Story Case File 39: A Confession?

Cure Yell had several visible injuries now. Her once rosy cheeks and the adorable battle outfit that fulfilled every girl's beautiful fantasy were smeared with soot as black as the bottom of a pot. Even her flowing pink hair, once soft and beautiful, had lost its luster.

But she stood back up.

She looked back at the frightened crowd, then rose to stand between them and Time Fire. Her waist trembled, yet she stood firm, staring at him with the gaze of a strong person who knew exactly what she was doing.

At that moment, standing like that, she seemed more romantic and more beautiful in Ash's eyes than any gorgeous fairy fallen into the mortal world, or any exquisite Succubus tempting others into ruin. She was so beautiful that he did not want to look away for even a second.

She had taken even less time than he had expected. It seemed she truly was as tough as he had thought.

[Dark Echo—being generated in large quantities. Conversion in progress.]

I know. Ash silently answered the system. Naturally, he could see the invisible darkness pouring forth from beneath her bright exterior.

After all, he had genuinely made her furious.

"Though calling a girl tough is somewhat rude." The Pretty Cure's pink hair was messy, but not disheveled, while Ash steadily pressed forward. "Well, you get what I mean."

"Step—"

Ash's advancing foot stopped precisely at the boundary between his attack range and hers. Not too close, not too far—just right.

After glancing at her empty hands, Ash lowered the Guardian Sword in his hand and retracted its blade. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he sent it spinning up into the sky.

"You don't look like the kind of weak person who begs for mercy after being knocked down once. So, round two?"

"Click!"

The spinning DV Defender, caught by gravity, landed perfectly in the silver holster at the man's side.

Hana still said nothing. She merely clenched her fists, took up a stance ready for any sudden attack, and lightly wiped the blood beneath her nose with her thumb. The golden embroidery at her wrist was stained with a trace of crimson as well.

"Ha, Bruce Lee?" As his body tipped forward under gravity to an angle like Michael Jackson's, Ash shot toward Nono Hana like a crimson arrow loosed from a bow.

"I really am starting to like you more and more, Cure Yell!"

Boom!

Watching the fierce battle erupt beneath him once more, the disheveled, haggard man holding a thick book deeply furrowed his brow.

He was dissatisfied. Anyone could tell from his expression that he was deeply dissatisfied with everything happening now.

As Time, the witness of repeated tragic histories, if the unexpected development at the beginning—the appearance of that unusual "flame"—had brought him some joy, then what came afterward, the way that "flame" seemed intent on burning the entire book down with it, was a development he loathed.

"Interloper, what exactly does your appearance represent?" The haggard man did not hide his disgust for Ash below. "What do you want to change? What do you want to save? You can save nothing. Only I can save her!"

"And you—your continued existence in this world is absolutely a mistake! Your presence in this world is nothing but superfluous. Go back already!"

Ash's streamlined crimson arc swept past his burning visor. Without even drawing his gun, he spun the weapon one hundred and eighty degrees while it remained in its holster and mercilessly fired roughly overhead.

The crimson streak pierced through shattered rubble from the building. There was nothing there now. Just as Ash's instincts began to feel uneasy, a fist slammed heavily into the side of his face, bringing his attention back to the battle.

"You get distracted too?"

By now, Cure Yell's exposed skin was covered in wounds and bruises, half inflicted by Ash and half caused by her own all-out fighting style. At this moment, in close combat, she made full use of her speed and strength advantage, attacking in succession until Ash was somewhat overwhelmed.

"Only a little." Ash slapped aside her straight punch and raised his arm to block her hook. His counterattack stance formed in an instant, and he thrust out a palm like a beast pouncing on prey, striking her somewhat soft chest squarely. "I promise you, there won't be a next time."

Having swiftly thrown himself back into the battle, Ash no longer bothered with that meaningless, self-important interloper who stood there talking without knowing the pain of it.

That useless fool only dared to hide far away and spout nonsense, pretending to control everything. He did not match the "beauty" Ash sought at all, so Ash had no intention of paying him any attention.

If you're truly dissatisfied, then come and try doing something about it.

After all, someone who only watched was destined to accomplish nothing. Thus, he would do nothing, simply because it did not matter.

The battle continued without that spoil-sporting interloper, and gradually, the advantage tilted toward Time Fire.

Although the Pretty Cure system's upper limit far surpassed that of an artificially made battle suit, even one created in the thirtieth century, what determined the outcome was never the clothes, but the person inside them.

At the beginning, Hana, who had only just recovered from a serious illness, could temporarily suppress him when Tomorrow Energy surged through her. But as time passed, her fatigue became apparent. Ash, who held the advantage in skill and health, naturally turned the tables and suppressed Nono Hana.

His joined, upright hands shot out like two flying snake heads. The outsides of his tense arms deflected her straight punches. Her fists sparked against the ears of his somewhat faded helmet, while his knife-hands left two red marks across her cute face. Then they changed direction, and one knife-hand struck heavily at the base of her neck.

"Checkmate."

The Pretty Cure's eyes rolled white, and her body collapsed softly backward onto the ground, returning to the dust.

"Looks like I won." Seeing the woman trying to get back up, Ash "gently" placed the sole of his shoe on her chest and "tenderly" pressed her back down. "And don't get up again. That last hit really did a number on you."

"Heh—"

Feeling the inescapable weight on her chest and the powerless soreness spreading through her body, Yell actually smiled, whether in acceptance or as her own way of mocking her opponent.

She had wanted to defeat him so he would listen to her, but now that she was inferior in skill and could only concede defeat, she instead had to listen to him.

"If you had called that mechanical dinosaur over, you could have won faster."

"No, no, no." Ash shook a finger. "That wouldn't do..."

He removed his foot. This time, Ash truly did gently place his knee on her smooth, creamy belly, slowly pressing half his body weight onto her. Intimately close, he lifted her no-longer-smooth chin on tiptoe so she would meet his gaze.

"Right now, all I want in my eyes is you."

Side Story Case File 40: Rejected?

This was not the first time I had said something like that.

After all, my system was not like those in other web novels, handing out all kinds of inexplicable missions. I only needed to come into contact with battles between heroes and villains, and I could naturally absorb Dark Echo to complete missions. The rest was up to me. Naturally, I developed some hobbies of my own.

At first, I was just like a petty thug looking for fun, opposing heroes and villains alike, causing them trouble and enjoying the sight of them getting furious. Then, little by little, I was drawn in like a firefly by the light they gave off. Now I understood: I "liked" people who were this dazzling, this "beautiful"! Other worlds had different warriors. In this world, that person was naturally you!

That's right. The unwavering heart that had protected the entire world for eight years, the eternal self-sacrifice, the reckless devotion, the passionate way she shone while giving herself up for others—even though it made me angry because I thought it was not worth it, it also fascinated me beyond measure!

That was why I had deliberately gotten distracted to deal with that uninvited peeping creep I hated.

"That sounds like a confession of love." Hana was not as startled this time as she had been when he first spoke of "love." Instead, she appeared very calm.

That was only natural. After all, she was already an adult.

"It's not merely like one. I told you, didn't I? I'm a man utterly captivated by you."

"Pfft." This time, Yell, still breathing heavily, genuinely burst out laughing. "Pffft—hahaha!"

Oh no. Hearing him say that so seriously made her want to laugh out loud by accident. Mainly because being confessed to by an enemy on a battlefield was just too strange, so she could not help laughing in a way that did not fit her image.

Until now, her enemies had all been Doomsday Monsters, creatures formed purely from malice and Rampage Energy. They only shouted, "It's over!" before following their instincts and destroying things everywhere. Rather than monsters, their true nature was closer to a natural disaster.

And Time Fire—this person Nono Hana could not describe with words, with any term in her vocabulary—was actually the first enemy she had encountered who could communicate with her. He was also the first one so... full of personality.

Was that why she felt so deeply affected by him?

First, she had felt jealousy from this person. Then his incredibly awkward strangeness had made her laugh. If she had to evaluate it herself, it all felt far too dramatic. What was this? Some illogical scene from a third-rate novel?

Honestly, when he had attacked her for incomprehensible reasons at first, her heart had been filled with anger. But now, faced with such a dramatic, childish "confession," she instead felt somewhat happy.

But... all right, she still felt more dislike than anything else.

"If you continue to maintain this beauty, then I will continue to love you deeply."

"Time Fire." Cure Yell looked at Ash, who was "devotedly in love" with her, then composed her expression and seriously called his name. "Your flirting is terrible. No girl would ever be willing to go on a date with you."

At least, she absolutely did not want her first date to be arranged this way. Besides, Hana had more or less understood just how differently he and she interpreted the word "date."