After all, aside from being a proper hero who saved others, perhaps there was nothing else I could do anymore.
Jet-black "Rampage Energy," like a blinding drop of ink, flashed through the pink Mirai Crystal.
The man opened his scarlet mouth wide.
The woman parted her pale, thin lips slightly.
"Time Fire!"
Mirai's crimson flames enveloped the man. A combat suit from another future world wrapped around him within that world of fire, locking into place on the warrior's body.
"Mirai Crystal, Heart Sparkle."
As she shook the shining Light Heart, the surging Tomorrow Energy transformed into boundless power, reshaping the girl's body and filling her with an endless source of strength. Her pale-pink bangs slowly drifted down, covering her eyes.
Looking at Time Fire in the shattered mirror by his feet, the man, filled with irritation and fury, leaped toward the Doomsday Monster above him.
He had never blamed the person in the mirror so much before.
Looking at Yell Angel in the filthy puddle by her feet, the woman, weighed down by confusion, slowly walked toward the Doomsday Monster before her.
She had never hated the person in the puddle so much before.
Case File 57: Eyes Stepping into the Void
"It's already over!"
Yakushiji Saaya, once a beautiful actress, had finally been completely swallowed by the darkness in her heart born from being misunderstood. The Rampage Energy erupting from her body buried her in even deeper darkness and despair. Now, neither her mother's anguished screams nor her friends' calls could reach her originally kind heart.
"It's already over!"
With that despairing cry, the jet-black giant monster, its face painted with an anthropomorphic tragic expression, burst through the building above its head. It flung away the surrounding structures binding it, and people covered their heads as they fled toward safety amid the falling rubble. Fortunately, eight years of "Doomsday Monster incidents" had long since taught everyone the proper way to escape.
Even so, some people still refused to leave for one reason or another.
"Saaya, Saaya's—!"
"It's too late, Emiru." Homare gritted her teeth and dragged away Emiru, who could not accept reality and did not dare look at the Doomsday Monster overhead again. "Luckily, Hana and Dr. Ash aren't here. We need to get out now!"
Otherwise, if Saaya had to watch herself hurt her friends with her own eyes, it would hurt worse than being killed.
"But—Saaya actually...!"
Doomsday Monsters could be transformed from humans? She had never heard of such a thing!
Just as Emiru struggled to accept it, the walking "natural disaster" descended from above. The Raging Enders' wildly flailing tentacles came crashing down at them.
"Waaaah—!"
This time, they really were finished!
Faced with destruction crashing down upon them, there truly was nothing they could do except scream in terror.
Within the enormous cloud of dust that crashed down, a red and a pink streak of light crossed.
"Are you okay, Miss Emiru?!"
"Ye—Yell!"
Her whole body suddenly soared into the air. When the anxious Emiru opened her eyes, she saw Pretty Cure walking on light amid the dashing wind, and her eyes immediately sparkled like she was looking at an idol.
"You came! I knew it, I knew you would come!"
"Yeah..."
The gusting wind blew her pink bangs over her eyes, and the shadow they cast prevented Emiru from seeing the light vanish from her gaze for that instant.
"No matter when it is, I'll always come."
No matter the weather, no matter the time, no matter the day, no matter what I was doing, if a Doomsday Monster appeared, I would come, because this was something only I could do.
Because everyone was waiting for Precure to save them.
"So I have to come."
"Ye... Yell?"
Emiru, who was highly sensitive to voices, heard the emotionless tone in her voice and uncertainly called her name.
As the enormous hand descended from the sky to smash them into meat patties, Ash's thoughts shifted. The Time Unit built into Time Fire's protective suit activated, and the world around them instantly appeared to freeze.
In that world where time had been slowed, Ash's movements left a trail of crimson afterimages behind him, gradually igniting. With one hand, he hoisted Homare over his shoulder, then glanced back at the chain of pink afterimages brushing past him.
Her appearance was not unexpected, but this girl... what had she done?
Why had that spirited feeling—the one that persisted through any desperate situation—vanished? All he could feel... was cold resolve.
Was she in a bad mood?
"Waaaah—!"
Before Homare even had time to scream in fear, she found herself in the sky. The dustless sun reminded her of the day she had leaped high at the ice rink under countless gazes.
Did I... jump? No, I was being carried—slung over someone's shoulder and flown through the air!
"Wait—waaaah!" Homare, slung over Ash's shoulder, was carried upward along the Doomsday Monster's arm. Using the monster's raised arm, Ash flipped backward and landed like a gymnast on the rooftop of the building behind them.
"Put, put me down—blegh!" This guy actually carried me around like a sack of rice!
"Don't throw up on me."
After setting Homare down, Ash turned toward the Doomsday Monster.
"It's already over—"
Still crying out, this "Raging Enders," completely unlike any Doomsday Monster that had appeared before, continued mutating. Its form began to resemble a nurse, while one of its hands transformed into a weapon like a syringe.
"This thing evolved as an enemy too... huh."
Should I use V-REX's power here? No, I'll hold off on that for now.
"Huff..."
Following the gaze behind him, Ash's eyes fell upon her long, slender, elegant leg.
"You're fine now, right? See? What I said back then was correct."
"You!"
"What, are you going to talk harshly to the person who saved your life?" Ash immediately went on the offensive and choked her words back. "At the very least, you should thank me now."
"Tha..." Summoning all her courage, Homare finally said it. "Thank—huh?"
By the time she worked up the courage to look up, the red warrior had already disappeared from the rooftop.
"Hey—"
Ash landed in a superhero pose and saw Cure Yell standing with her back to him. His previously gloomy mood finally improved, so he greeted her as usual.
"Hey, have you seen someone with the same hair color as you... well, forget it. What's wrong? Bad mood?"
"..."
Cure Yell merely looked up at the Doomsday Monster slowly approaching them. She stood there like a wooden post, with no intention of answering him.
"What, no reaction? Trying to act all cool today? Or do you want me to tell a joke and wake that sleeping woman up?"
"..."
"You really aren't any fun today. So, what do you think of this new monster?" Standing beside her, Ash continued talking to himself. "It looks different from the usual cannon fodder. How about you defend while I attack—hey?!"
Before Ash could even finish speaking, his eyes widened as Cure Yell leaped into the air. Her fist, burning with massive amounts of Tomorrow Energy, smashed toward the descending syringe!
What was with this woman today? Did she take the wrong damn medicine?!
"Boom—"
The air exploded like a fuel-air blast. Nono Hana's trembling right hand swung backward counterclockwise, yet the Doomsday Monster also screamed and toppled backward, crashing into the already-collapsed buildings behind it.
Drip, drip...
Scarlet blood dripped from her trembling fist onto the ground. Tomorrow Energy forcibly repaired the tear in the back of her hand. Pain akin to ripping and reassembling her flesh shot through her nerves, but Nono Hana's face remained blank and gloomy, as though she did not care in the slightest.
The wound Ash had healed for her showed signs of splitting open again. Normally, she would have been careful during a fight, but now she did not care.
She had not listened to a word Time Fire said. If he was just another person obsessed with Cure Yell, even wanting her to remain Cure Yell forever, then she hated him—she even hated him!
At that moment, Nono Hana's eyes held only the gigantic monster. She was nearly forgetting her mission. All she could feel was the righteous indignation in her chest, and...
Wasn't there something right in front of her to vent it on?
Then she would blast it away.
Case File 58: Losing Control
"Hey, you're bleeding."
"It's already over—"
Completely ignoring Ash's voice, Cure Yell charged the Doomsday Monster again with a dark expression, knocking it down once more, as though its darkness and enhancement were nothing but a joke before her.
I am Precure.
My mission is to defeat evil darkness. Other than that—there is nothing else!
"Boom—"
Yell almost abandoned all defense, leaving only a trail of blood behind her as she barely scraped past the thrusting syringe. Her fists rained down upon the Raging Enders.
The Doomsday Monster smashed into the building that was already on the verge of total collapse again, and the flying rubble drew screams from the surrounding crowd.
Ash sensed that something was wrong. In past battles, Precure had never fought so recklessly, disregarding everyone else like this!
This girl—something was wrong with her.
She was completely different from before, as if she had become another person!
As Ash thought this, the Pretty Cure before him felt entirely different from the impression she had left on him before. If the brilliance Ash saw in the old Yell was the strength to keep going through any desperate situation, with justice and kindness always overflowing from her eyes—
Then all Yell gave Ash now was the quietly burning sense of one word: "danger."
This oppressive feeling was—
For the first time in this world, he experienced the tense feeling he had once felt when facing powerful enemies, as if they could kill him at any moment. Beneath his helmet, where streams of data flickered continuously, Ash's heavy, cautious breathing grew slower and slower...
The hairs on his back stood on end. His right hand had unknowingly clenched the grip of the Vulcan Gun. If Yell made even the slightest unusual move, Ash would not hesitate to draw his weapon and shoot the woman before him.
"Do you have something on your mind? Let me guess, did your boyfriend dump you or something?"
Ash casually brought up a provocative topic, intending to divert her attention and make her relax. Yet he did not see that the instant his words fell, that blood-covered fist clenched tight.
"Ha, I can't read minds, so I don't know what you're thinking. But I'd advise you not to bring emotional problems into battle. It makes things difficult for others."
Hana lowered her head as though she truly were being lectured by Ash. If one ignored her increasingly clenched fist, it really did look that way.
"You heroes, whether in this world or any other, always think about all sorts of nonsense regardless of the situation. You even fail to see what's right in front of you. I've never been able to stand that kind of naïveté—"
The Melody Holy Sword scraped across the ground, throwing up a harsh screech and sparks, followed by the sound of the heavy blade slicing through the air. In the blink of an eye, Yell had leaped above Time Fire's head, the Melody Holy Sword carving a rainbow trail as it slashed down at him.
"DV Conversion, Guardian Sword."
"Clang!!" He issued the command at top speed. The Guardian Sword's slender blade blocked Yell's nearly full-force strike against the Melody Holy Sword, but even the Guardian Sword, a crystallization of future-world technology, could not completely withstand that power.
After only a moment of clashing with the Melody Holy Sword, the Guardian Sword's shining blade began to groan under the strain. Ash's arms, braced with all his strength, made crackling, grinding sounds between the bones, while the already unstable ground had long since been shattered by the shockwaves from their collision.
Time Fire kicked off with all his strength and darted diagonally backward, breaking free from the Melody Holy Sword's suppression. The spot where he had stood was cleaved apart by Yell's sword, its force undiminished. The already heavily damaged press conference venue could now be declared completely ruined, enough to give municipal officials headaches every night for at least the next half month.
"Hey, are you crazy, Yell? The Doomsday Monster is behind you, not over here!" He steadied himself as his body and combat suit, both sounding warnings from their clash, reminded him that the blazing Yell before him was in a terrifying state.
Had his words angered her? But the real enemy was right in front of her. Why had she suddenly turned her weapon on him? This was not something she would do! This was wrong!
"Can someone like you even be called a hero of justice? Was I wrong about what fascinated me about you?"
"If your head isn't working right, leave the job to me and go home. This state isn't how you're supposed to be."
Not how I was supposed to be...
"Hehehe, hahahaha~"
Before you continue