Kamen Rider Plays the Villain in Pretty Cure

"So—this was your true face beneath that gentle, kind disguise?"

"Are you disappointed?"

Facing Yell's colder-than-ever voice, Ash bent one knee and half-knelt on the ground, dodging the sword light that had sliced through where his neck had been.

"If this is real... then I want it so badly, it's been haunting my dreams, Precure!"

He flung aside the Guardian Sword. With a scream, it pierced the Doomsday Monster beneath his feet. Then, with a powerful swing, he sent the sword flying upward. Its blade was already coated in an undying black flame, the swirling fire forcing her back too late while obscuring her vision.

"No matter how ugly or unsightly it is, it doesn't matter, because it's all you! It's the added value that makes you even more beautiful!"

He reversed his grip and held the sword by his waist as though sheathing it. Turning away from Yell, Ash's entire body, every muscle and ounce of strength, began to gather power for that single strike.

"You hide your truth, and I hide mine too... feelings I only realized now!"

His other hand rested on the nonexistent scabbard at his side. Nono Hana's usual pure, innocent silly smile inexplicably flashed through his mind, only to instantly become that soul-shattering sorrowful smile. A nameless pain cut through his heart, making Ash roar as all his strength erupted!

"Sure enough, you and I are bound together by the red thread of fate!"

Galaxy One-Sword Style, direct transmission—Battō-jutsu—!

"That's right, a fate of battle without morality or right and wrong—!"

The radiance of the Melody Holy Sword blew away the swirling black flames, but to her unease, Ash had completely missed her, merely brushing past her.

Then came a crisp crack.

From below, the black-flamed sword slashed upward with all its might. For an instant, only the flash of the blade filled her vision. Yell's expression finally changed as the black fire streaked toward and cut through her entire left shoulder and arm!

"Guh—Aaaaaah!!!" Blood sprayed like a fountain, splattering both Hana's screaming face and Time Fire's profile red, painting an even more bewitching color over this tragic duel.

"I finally understand!"

The injured Hana gripped her sword in reverse like a trapped beast, about to cut the man before her in half at the waist. But Ash had already leaped into the sky ahead of her. From above, the Guardian Sword once again erupted in unimaginable flames against the Melody Holy Sword.

"Why did I fall for you, who fought all alone? Why did I fall for that useless woman who couldn't even dress properly?!"

Raise the sword, slash down, raise the sword, slash down! Those unbelievably simple overhead chops, like New Year's greetings, came crashing down in layers of afterimages beneath Ash's peerless pressure. Hana, defending with one hand, was nearly hammered into the screaming Doomsday Monster below her.

"It was that sense of reality that let your overwhelming beauty steal my heart!"

"This feeling... this is love!"

Case File 61: Love Is Endless Violence

Using Rampage Energy as fuel, the black-flamed "Guardian Sword" had truly severed her entire arm below the left shoulder. The fountain of blood proved it. If not for a few strands of flesh still barely holding it together, her entire arm would have already fallen to the ground in a spray of blood.

Tomorrow Energy spun madly, brutally forcing her muscles back into place. Whether everything aligned or not, it forcibly connected bone and nerves. Such butcher-like pain would have made even a battlefield veteran howl like a slaughtered pig, yet Hana, facing Time Fire with one hand, merely widened her eyes and stared blankly at the man before her.

"Love?!"

Repeating the strange words that had suddenly come from his mouth, Hana's tone became oddly distorted for an instant.

The Melody Holy Sword was finally knocked from Hana's bleeding grip. Nono Hana really had gone mad, but Ash was even madder than her as he swung his sword straight at her face.

"You said... love!"

Anger, pain, sorrow, and happiness so faint it could not even emit light before being swallowed by vast, despairing darkness. As a beastlike roar burst from her open throat, her clenched fist drew back to her side, and the strength that exploded from it sounded like a bullet leaving the chamber, igniting gunpowder.

The one person least qualified to talk about love... is you, the perverted creep who keeps following Cure Yell around like a stalker!

Why... why did my first time have to be confessed to by such a lowlife bastard?!

Cure Yell's rising uppercut was faster than Ash's descending Guardian Sword! Her full-powered fist slammed into Time Fire's chin. Visible cracks spread from his jaw to his lips as silvery helmet fragments shattered and flew apart.

"Love in this world has never loved those who sought after it!"

Cure Yell was now covered in wounds and utterly bedraggled. Even the two tied sections of hair behind her had come loose. Her pink hair fell before her lowered face, concealing her expression and revealing only two scarlet eyes.

At this moment, Cure Yell was as powerful as a demon god and as deranged as a mad fiend.

"Gwah—!"

Ash let out a frog-like scream as her punch sent him flying into the already-collapsed wall of a building behind him. The force did not stop there, carrying him upward as he shattered the glass behind him like falling rain.

Just as Ash was about to soar into the sky, he grabbed an exposed steel bar behind him. His entire body spun in place, shedding the force before crouching atop it.

"Crack!" Ash twisted his dislocated jaw back into place, then smacked his lips and swallowed several blood-flavored teeth.

Does going dark really make someone three times stronger? If so, that's terrifying.

"That's right. This is love."

"You only want everything to follow your wishes. What right do you have to speak of love?!"

Hana's eyes held only Time Fire's figure now. She stepped on the Doomsday Monster beneath her, leaped high, and swung her sword as she pursued him above!

Something was wrong with Cure Yell now. Even passersby could tell that much. They screamed and fled, not daring to look toward the smoke-shrouded place that had become a battlefield. Only one mother remained, kneeling there and weeping bitterly.

They did not know what had happened. They could only watch helplessly as their hero descended into madness. Other than praying for her, they did nothing.

That was why the more Ash liked Cure Yell, the more he hated ordinary bystanders like them.

"But it seems this love has finally surpassed its limits and become hatred!"

Ash did not care in the slightest about the injury to his recently shattered jaw. Instead, he grew fiercer with every exchange. Facing the incoming attack, he took the initiative and descended from the sky. The silver blade of the Guardian Sword, scorched crimson by black flames, collided with the Melody Holy Sword once again.

They had repeated this motion countless times already.

He crashed to the ground, straddling Yell's exposed stomach. Light shot from his sword, illuminating Hana's gritted teeth and savage expression. Ash, somehow drawing dark power from Hana herself, suppressed her once again.

"Runaway extreme emotions! A pure wish has instead become an accomplice to destruction!"

Noticing something, Ash's gaze swept toward the mother who could only cry in the distance. If he had not intervened earlier, Hana's friend, Saya, would have been killed by the hero meant to protect humanity.

This was something Ash could never allow! Whether it was Hana grieving for her friend or Cure Yell losing her path as a hero, neither was a future he could accept!

"This is that poor mother's final wish. As a hero, don't you intend to listen to it?"

Listen to what? What is there to listen to? Aren't I fighting the enemy of darkness right now?! If I've always been doing this, then why are you telling me what to do?!

Hana doesn't want to hear anything right now... Haven't I spent enough time fighting for others already?! Besides, what is wrong with wanting to defeat the enemy?!

"Look at yourself right now. I want to see your beautiful side, but this attitude of rejecting everything is just like a little girl throwing a tantrum after being dumped by her boyfriend!"

"What did you say—?!" Hana roared furiously and kicked him in the stomach with all her might, sending him rolling away. She stepped forward and stomped on Ash's foot. Then, amid spraying blood, she reversed her grip and stabbed her sword downward, nailing both her own foot and Ash's foot, which he had failed to pull back in time, to the Doomsday Monster's belly! "What the hell do you know, you perverted masked bastard?!"

Hana's fist, breaking the sound barrier as it flew toward Ash's head, was firmly caught around the wrist by Time Fire's hand. Their immense strength clashed in midair, locked in a stalemate.

"What I understand is the truth of your distortion!"

"You're the one who turned me into this—You people!"

Dr. Ash... the one who had helped her, saved her, drawn her in, made her fall in love, given her hope, made her believe, and then rejected her in the end.

Don't... don't leave!

She had desperately reached out, crying his name, yet he had left her only his back as he walked away without a care.

It was not the fact that he did not love her that she could not accept. It was that... if she was the "Cure Yell" loved by everyone, why did she have to live in this world as "Nono Hana" at all?!

"You people speak of love, made me think love was something real, and turned me into someone who can't even be myself anymore!"

"It's begun."

The bruised and battered man limped closer. Looking at the battlefield where only the wills of darkness collided, his face held nothing but numb indifference.

"A tragedy greater than any before it has begun."

Case File 62: The Unacceptable... Truth

The blood flowing from Nono Hana and Ash gradually mixed together in a whirlpool, blending as it ran across the ground with gravity.

"Hngh!"

"Hah!"

With their feet nailed to the Doomsday Monster's belly by the Melody Holy Sword, they could only face each other in the most direct way possible.

Muffled roars surged from deep in their throats. Filled with fighting spirit, the two held opposing beliefs, and each wanted to prove themselves by knocking the other down from here!

Ash's left hand tightly gripped Hana's wrist, while his right fist, driving straight forward, was caught in Hana's palm with a crunching sound.

Their foreheads pressed together, the dull collision marking the peak of their contest of strength. If letting go now meant admitting defeat, then neither of them would ever be willing to give up.

"If you think the thing that's wrong isn't you, but love—!"

Their hands remained locked in the air. After a muffled boom, Cure Yell and Time Fire, their faces mere inches apart, threw their heads back and smashed their foreheads together once more!

"Then tell me, why does darkness flow through your body? What is your heart craving right now?!"

You're asking me that?! Hearing Time Fire's words, even more suppressed fury ignited in Hana's eyes.

At last, tears flowed from her reddened eyes.

She swung her leg in a wide arc and kicked him in the waist. Pulling out the Melody Holy Sword, she flung it toward the figure flying backward, and the shower of light bullets completely swallowed Time Fire.

"You have power and freedom. You can do anything as you please, so what could you possibly understand?!"

You are Time Fire. You have freedom—the freedom to fight for justice or evil! But Precure can only live for everyone. As Yell, I can only become everyone's hope and cheer for everyone's happiness. As Nono Hana, I could never do that, no matter what. It's the only thing I can do as Yell!

"So this time, I'll completely destroy you, who stands on the side of darkness!"

Ignoring the tearing wounds all over her body, Nono Hana leveled her sword at the presence within the smoke. Unmistakable killing intent surged forth as she roared and charged at him without hesitation.

Time Fire, this is where our entanglement ends. I'll defeat you, today, right here!

"Is this the duty of a legendary warrior, or is it your own will?!"

The smoke split down the middle. Time Fire roared his question as the Guardian Sword in his raised hand drove away the flames, its blade instead filling with icy blue radiance.

"This is the voice of the world!"

As she charged forward with a roar, floating motes of light and streaks of drawn blood formed the path behind her. On Nono Hana, whose mind was gradually being overtaken by Rampage Energy, Tomorrow Energy—the symbol of the future and hope—grew fainter and fainter...

"Well said, Precure! Since you're aiming for my life, then that stubborn heart of yours—"

Answering Nono Hana, Ash swept the ice-blue sword in his hand into an arc. The straight blade likewise pointed directly at Nono Hana before him.

"I'll cut through that distortion along with you!"

If your head still isn't clear, then I'll personally send you on your way!

Covered in wounds, terrifying cuts all over her body stained the tattered combat suit hanging from her like strips of cloth. A meaningless wind lifted the loose hair scattered across her forehead, making her look like a mad demon.

He was equally disheveled. Cracks covered his red helmet, and the broken silver jaw guard revealed the man's lips. His torn red combat suit exposed core electronic components beneath, sparks bursting across them. Even his flame-shaped visor had shattered, revealing the man's crazed eyes.

The distance between them shrank in less than a blink. Fifty meters, thirty meters, ten meters! Five! Zero—!

"Splurt—!"

The bloodstained blades and two dazzling clouds of blood bloomed simultaneously behind the man and woman.

This time, they finally no longer had the strength to keep fighting.

The man, pierced through the left side of his chest, released his grip. He collapsed weakly to his knees, then silently slid down the Doomsday Monster's round belly to the ground. The woman, pierced through the chest, staggered back two steps and looked blankly toward the cloud-covered sky, as if it were weeping. In the end, she shook her head, lowered it, and fell downward as well.

"Cough—!" Hana, whose lung had nearly been pierced, painfully coughed up a mouthful of blood. With the Guardian Sword lodged in her chest, she did not even have the strength to stand. Grabbing the blade with both hands, she endured the pain and pulled it free, tossing it aside. Only then did Hana gasp loudly through a throat that wheezed like a broken bellows.

No, that last strike grazed his heart. He isn't dead yet. I have to...

I have to... What am I going to do?

Hana blinked. Slowly raising her hand, she looked at the palm drenched in blood. An incredulous expression made her pink eyes tremble.

What am I doing? Why did I want to kill him so badly? Why did I want to kill someone?

The light faded from Hana's body, returning her to her fragile self. Having lost her power, Nono Hana began coughing painfully again. At that moment, a voice that sounded as though it had been buried in mud—extremely muddy, yet inexplicably familiar—rang by her ear.

"Hana... lit...tle Hana?"

"Saya...?" Calling that person's name on instinct, Hana opened her mouth wide. As the darkness of the Doomsday Monster gradually dissipated, she saw her friend Yakushiji Saaya lying there in pain.

Huh? Inside the Doomsday Monster was... Saya?

Just now, I almost single-mindedly killed my own friend?

At that moment, something snapped inside Hana's mind.