"Don't be in such a hurry, Hana." Nono Moritaro, the supermarket manager, wore a faint smile as he patted the shoulder of his ever-impulsive daughter like always. The middle-aged man's temples had already gone gray.
"Look, your clothes are soaked through. Go change in the locker room before coming back."
"Yes!"
Watching his daughter's hurried retreating figure, the man could not help but sigh.
"What did you go and do this time, Hana?"
He knew that both he and her mother had noticed that their daughter seemed to be hiding something from them.
Even if she hid it well, how could parents fail to notice the exhausted expressions that occasionally appeared on their daughter's face over the years?
Yet she had never mentioned any of it. Even when they tried to probe indirectly, she would laugh it off by saying it was only because she was careless. But the hardships she had hidden from them were real.
This time too, the company Nono Hana had painstakingly built had gone bankrupt. Her life, which had only just begun to improve, had plummeted once more. Unwilling to worry her family, she hid all her suffering behind that same smile as always, leaving them aching inside as they watched.
Kotori, if you don't want to talk about it, Dad will never press you. We will support you.
But no matter what you want to do, don't ever lose!
"Boom—"
The violent sound from afar interrupted his thoughts. The man immediately ran to the window and looked toward its source.
"I'm done for—!"
A pitch-black monster with an irritated expression rampaged down the street, knocking over everything in its way. Its swinging fist smashed a huge crater into the asphalt.
"Another monster! But Pretty Cure only defeated one not long ago!"
Moritaro turned and ran back the way he had come, calling for the employees and customers to evacuate toward the emergency exit. He looked thoroughly practiced at it.
In truth, he was more familiar with these things than anyone. After all, monsters suddenly going berserk and wreaking havoc in the streets had been happening for more than eight years now. Everyone had been forced to get used to it.
Every time, the pink Pretty Cure would appear. Cure Yell, the Pretty Cure who cheered everyone on, would defeat those monsters and return peace to the city.
For eight years, no matter when or where, she had stood without hesitation before those grotesque monsters, wrapped in pink light. She had never lost, not even once.
This time too, she definitely would...
"Hana!"
When knocking got no response, the man burst through the locker room door and found an empty room.
Had she already escaped, Hana?
"Why? I clearly defeated the Doomsday Monster not long ago... why...?"
Standing atop a building, Nono Hana stared at the Doomsday Monster in the distance as it shouted, "I'm done for!" For a moment, she could not tell whether it was shouting at her.
"Right now, I..."
The strain of repeated battles, the harm caused to a body that had fought for so long without rest... it was immeasurable.
The hands gripping her pink transformation phone, the Light Heart, and her own Mirai Crystal Pink trembled faintly.
But...
Nono Hana raised her head again. All fear and hesitation had vanished from her face, and her reopened eyes were once more filled with a warrior's resolve.
"I have no choice but to fight!"
The Mirai Crystal, no longer as radiant as before, was fitted onto the Light Heart once more.
"Hearts—Sparkle!"
"Hold tight to a shining future! Let's cheer everyone o—cough, cough, cough!"
The tightness in her chest made the girl start coughing before she could finish her transformation call.
For some reason, Tomorrow Energy, the source of a Pretty Cure's power, seemed to have disappeared from her body in great amounts...
"I'll skip the rest. Next—"
Gathering all her strength, she leaped toward the Doomsday Monster.
Hold on, my body!
Case File 3: The Crimson New Warrior
"Aaaaaaah—!!"
Her strength was nearly exhausted, and she could no longer dodge. Facing the enormous fist rushing at her, the girl could only barely raise both arms to defend herself. The instant the blow struck, a scream tore from her throat like a snapped wire, and she shot into the distance as a streak of pink.
"Crash!"
Her body smashed through a brick wall. Her lower back, which had been injured in the previous battle, slammed into solid steel reinforcement and broke it. The searing pain nearly stole her consciousness in an instant. Nono Hana finally crashed into a water tower between high-rises. The stored water leaked from its dented shell, pouring over her back and soaking her body. The bone-chilling cold also jolted her mind awake.
Nono Hana had entered battle again without any rest after finishing the previous fight. Her lingering injuries had not recovered even with Pretty Cure's Tomorrow Energy, much less the energy that had mysteriously vanished from her body. She was practically forcing herself to fight with less than twenty percent of her condition remaining.
She no longer had the stamina to summon the invincible Melody Holy Sword.
She wanted to say something, but the sweetness rising in her throat choked all words back.
And that was not all. She seemed to have reached some critical point. Old injuries that had not healed over the past eight years, hidden injuries left untreated because she had not gone to a proper hospital for fear of worrying her family and friends, all erupted at this moment.
It hurt...
It hurt... itchy... it hurt so much! It really hurt so much! There wasn't a single part of her body that didn't hurt!
She had even lost the strength to struggle to her feet. The pain throughout her body made even this strong woman fall into despair, wishing someone would just kill her. The sounds constantly spilling from the girl's throat were like those of a lark with broken wings.
Had she finally reached her limit?
Could she no longer fight after today? But as Pretty Cure, I'm supposed to protect everyone... But it hurts so much. I have no strength left. I... don't want to fight anymore...
"Pretty Cure!"
All she could hear were the cries of others.
"Pretty Cure, please!"
"Pretty Cure, save me!!"
Having lost Nono Hana as its target, the Doomsday Monster turned on the fleeing civilians. And the people who had been protected for eight full years immediately began crying out for the savior they adored.
"Tap."
When she dropped from the water tower to the ground, the impact on her legs—something she normally could have ignored—almost left her unable to stand. Nono Hana rose again before the Doomsday Monster.
"That's right. I'm Pretty Cure..."
If I give up, how many people will get hurt? How many people will lose their families? If I give up, their futures will be taken away.
Muttering words like self-hypnosis under her breath, Nono Hana raised her trembling fist once more amid the cheers of countless strangers she had always protected.
"Come on. I'll be your opponent..."
[Whoosh—!]
Several crimson beams struck the Doomsday Monster's raised fist. Sparks exploded from every point hit, and the monster howled as it toppled backward. The sound of its collision with the earth was deafening!
"Tap!"
As Nono Hana stood stunned, completely unable to understand what had happened, the crisp sound suddenly echoing around her jolted her taut nerves.
"Tap!"
There it was again! Nono Hana took deep breaths, trying to calm herself and locate the source by listening, but the sound did not seem to come from any direction. It felt as though she stood at the center of an iron barrel while someone kept striking its outer walls, the echoes reverberating so constantly that she could not distinguish their source.
"Tap!" "Tap!" "Tap!"
The crisp sounds seemed entirely unconcerned with how she felt, pressing in on her from all directions. An attack from an unknown enemy or ally could come from anywhere. The sensation of being watched by a venomous snake crawled up Nono Hana's spine. The pressure accumulated through battle surged at that moment, nearly breaking her!
"Over here."
As if tired of the game, a somewhat lazy voice came from above.
"Y-you are?!"
Nono Hana, who had intended to say something, froze. The crimson figure, as though burning within flames, robbed her of speech entirely.
A flame emblem was emblazoned at the center of the fiery red battle suit's chest, while the edges of the visor on the helmet concealing his entire face were shaped like flames. Standing atop the tower, the crimson warrior lazily tapped the back of his strange pistol against the bracer on his raised left arm. That was where the crisp sounds came from.
Bathed in the blazing midday sun, the harsh sunlight behind him cast his front into pitch darkness. Only his silver lips, curved in a faint smile, could be seen.
This was Ash, transformed into [Time Fire].
"You... who are you?"
Was he a new Doomsday Monster? A new enemy, or...
Or perhaps...?
A wish she had long abandoned surfaced once more from the depths of Nono Hana's heart.
"Who knows."
The man's flippant answer nearly made the tense Nono Hana's legs give out beneath her.
"I don't know who I am either." As he slightly raised his head, the dark shadow slipped away. Reflected in Ash's black visor was Cure Yell's miserable appearance.
"But I've been wanting to find a target to practice shooting on."
"Doomsday Monster!"
The unwilling Doomsday Monster fired a black beam toward the crimson warrior. Ash leaped from the railing and raised the DV Defender in his hand, pulling the trigger at the massive target.
The black light exploded in a series of blasts behind the falling warrior, while the continuously fired crimson beams pierced through the monster once more.
Nono Hana's gaze met that of the crimson warrior as he landed and rose to his feet. Their eyes locked.
Who exactly are you?
Case File 4: A Different Kind of Warrior
Nono Hana's doubts went unanswered. The unknown red warrior simply shifted his steps and pulled the trigger again and again.
The massive fist descending on him was heavy and slow. The propulsion device at his feet blasted out air, and Ash rode against the direction of the attack, his relaxed movements making it seem as though he were playing with the enemy.
Instructions on how to use the "DV DEFENDER" in his hand began playing automatically beneath the flame-shaped visor. But Ash no longer needed them, because he had already remembered how he used to fight.
The DV Defender, covered in a dinosaur-like shell, spun several times in his hand. He pressed the red button in its center, pouring more energy into it.
"DV Conversion, Vulcan Cannon Mode."
The scattered rapid-fire light rounds switched to a concentrated beam mode. After changing into the high-output Vulcan Cannon Mode, the crimson ray extending from the muzzle resembled an infinitely long beam greatsword. With each swing of his palm, it burst into a chain of pink sparks across the Doomsday Monster's body.
Every beam exploded at precisely the right spots on the Doomsday Monster's vulnerable areas. Weaknesses that Nono Hana had taken years to discover were effortlessly exploited by this new warrior.
Seeing this, a trace of frustration rose in Nono Hana's heart. Her desire to question him grew stronger and stronger, but her arm still ached violently whenever she tried to move it. After struggling for a while, Nono Hana chose to stay where she was.
It was not just Nono Hana. The ordinary people around them, who had only just escaped danger, also noticed this new warrior.
"Go for it! Unknown red warrior!!"
Even though they did not know his identity or purpose, since he was fighting the Doomsday Monster, he had to be there to protect them. The people who believed that wholeheartedly cheered him on.
The new warrior's overwhelming combat power, which treated the Doomsday Monster like a toy, gave them hope again after Pretty Cure had fallen.
"Doomsday Monster!!" After having its weak points attacked again and again, the Doomsday Monster let out a thunderous roar of unwillingness.
The people who saw its exhaustion cheered even more enthusiastically.
"So noisy..."
What did they think this was, some joyful festival?
Ash muttered softly, though it was unclear whether he was complaining about the Doomsday Monster or the people cheering for him.
"Still, it's about time to end this."
The Doomsday Monster, which had been relentlessly beaten down, finally erupted in rage. Roaring, it smashed its massive hand down in front of him and shoved it forward, intending to crush him beneath a wide-area attack.
"DV Conversion, Guardian Sword." Ash remained utterly calm. As he issued the voice command, he pressed the button on the gun. Amid mechanical whirring, the dragon-head-shaped muzzle closed and extended a sharp blade, while the grip straightened into a sword hilt.
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