Having lost faith in the future and fallen into despair over the present, more than during any previous Doomsday Monster incident, unimaginable Rampage Energy arose within Nono Hana's heart. That torrential force was about to dye the Mirai Crystal on her chest completely black.
It was as though a certain turning point fate had long arranged for her had finally begun.
Time Fire—in the very end, you really are the only one who can dance with me. Do you remember your invitation before? Let's begin now, our date!
"I can't transform anymore. I'm no longer Cure Yell~"
"That doesn't matter anymore."
The one standing before me now is you, Nono Hana! Understand that!
"I can't answer Ash, the hero I love most, anymore~"
"That's enough, Hana. Compared to you, none of that matters."
"Even if you truly don't care about yourself anymore—think about your friends! Homare, Saya, Emiru! Think about your family too, like that little sister who nearly fought me for your sake!"
"I love them." Tears flowed down Hana's face, leaving black streaks across her soft cheeks. "But I can't answer them anymore either... No."
She no longer wanted to answer anyone.
"Hana!"
Ash was practically pleading as he shouted Hana's name.
But all that answered him was utter despair.
"It's over! My life, and my qualifications to be a hero as Cure Yell!"
Love, the future, life—none of it would work anymore.
Doubt, unease, fear of the future.
If Tomorrow Energy symbolized the positive force of a bright future—
Then the future had abandoned her.
She could no longer see the future!
Black mist—the excessively condensed, fully materialized Rampage Energy—erupted from Hana's chest as she floated in the air! It completely engulfed her figure from view.
Anger, hatred, resentment... The malicious elements she had once fiercely rejected, sworn to fight against, the things that kept the world from moving toward a bright future, were now clearly visible before her eyes.
And why did this cold sensation make her heart, which had always been on the verge of collapse, feel so comfortable...?
That's right. Since she no longer held hope for the future, she could no longer find a reason to fight for tomorrow. In that case... as long as everything sank into this darkness, she would finally feel at ease.
Hehe... Heehee... Hahahahaha~
The darkness twisted soundlessly, but Ash could clearly hear Hana's laughter from within it. Which meant—
"Nono!!"
It devoured the cage and cast off the chains.
It laughed loudly.
Floating in the air, Nono Hana slowly lay back into the darkness. A tide of blackness rose, surging toward Ash as though it possessed a will of its own, shoving the approaching man far away.
"Ugh, ugh, ugh, ughah..."
Within the darkness, that fallen figure rose amid sounds of crying and laughter. Her loungewear changed into a form Ash found familiar yet strange. Then, "Nono Hana" covered her face.
"Uwaaaahahahaha!!"
It was Cure Yell, yet merely something with Yell's appearance. Something that had grown within Nono Hana and Yell's body, stealing everything.
A Doomsday Monster.
"It's over... It's all over..." A hoarse, tiny voice rang out as drops of crimson fell one by one...
"Completely—ruined—"
Those were the signature words of a mindless Doomsday Monster.
"Precure" wept sorrowfully. From the Mirai Crystal on her chest, now completely mutated into black, several living mechanical tentacles suddenly extended. They wrapped around Hana's limbs, binding them as they piled higher and higher, as if intending to swallow her slender body, then lifted her into the air.
"AAAAAH!!" The tiny murmur instantly became an ear-piercing shriek. The darkness around Yell grew denser and larger, alternating with the mechanical tentacles plunging into the ground and surrounding environment, piercing the clouds and reaching into the sky.
The black energy transformed her appearance like an infection: a tattered, dim dress, rigid marble wings covered in cracks, and a hollow face with tears running down it, covered in plaster.
"NONO HANA!!!"
This was the third time he had called her name.
But she could no longer hear him.
Side Story: Case File 69—No One Left to Shine Upon
A pure power of darkness, deeper than dusk and blacker than the night, came crashing down. Ash raised one hand before him, and the plaster coating it exploded into dust that drifted backward.
In such a transformation scene that could only be called an "aberration," even Ash, whose duty was to absorb darkness, could barely hold his ground and was nearly blown away.
So what were the odds that Ash would simply watch helplessly, or retreat in fear and make plans later?
Perhaps the old him might have done so. But after his heart had just reached a certain stage not long ago, that number could only be zero.
"If you ignore me now, I'll be in quite a bind!" The gleaming DV Defender—Guardian Sword Mode spun brilliantly in his palm, cleanly cutting apart every tentacle that occasionally lashed toward him.
"Who could possibly stand by and do nothing in a situation like this—"
I have to make it—have to make it—!!!
Without hesitation, Ash charged into the formation of darkness. Enduring unimaginable corrosion and impact from the darkness, he approached Nono Hana, who was being held aloft by the tentacles and gradually drawn into that mass of darkness in the sky.
Wait for me. I'll stop all of this right now.
"Don't give up on yourself, don't give up thinking, don't give up on happiness!"
Whether it would work or not, he shouted at her with all his strength.
"You are—whether as Nono Hana or Cure Yell—you are absolutely not such a weak girl! So—"
He leaped, but it was still not enough. The impacts and gravity dragged him back toward the ground.
He released the sword and flung it beneath his feet. Then, with a ghostlike twist of his whole body, he stepped on the blade and used it for a second boost in a double jump, reaching his right hand toward Hana, whose eyes had gone lifeless.
"Take my hand—!"
Two markings like frozen tear tracks ran down Hana's face, which was covered in stone-carved material. She slowly turned toward Ash, and a fragment cracked loose from the corner of her eye.
Ash's racing figure and his distorted expression reflected again and again in her eyes, devoid of any light.
They had once been good friends.
They had once laughed happily together.
He had once been someone she could rely on.
He had once been, and still was, someone she loved.
Why...
Ash.
I...
Hana parted her lips slightly. Her left hand, with only the palm exposed as mechanical tentacles continuously coiled around it, trembled and wavered as it reached out from the pitch-black darkness toward Ash's palm.
Just a little more—!
At last, their fingertips lightly touched.
The next second, a massive tornado of darkness swept Ash away. The two separated at the instant they touched, and the man's body was hurled far into the distance.
"Hana—!!!"
Hearing the loud rush of water and feeling the cool air around him, Ash realized at the end of the tremendous impact where he had been carried.
This was the small river where she had rescued him.
The place where they first met.
In the last sight his fading consciousness could sustain, in a world still swallowed by darkness, the direction my hand reached toward was Hana, growing farther and farther away.
I had been born in darkness countless times, lived in darkness, walked in darkness, fought in darkness.
Yet now, darkness had taken my Hana from before my eyes.
Now, at this moment, I!
Hana, I, toward you...
Until the world had completely swallowed every trace of light, Ash, whose head had suffered a blow, could no longer sustain his consciousness. He fell into the sea of his unconscious soul, and his spirit walked from one darkness into another.
Soaked.
Wandering.
Drifting.
Sinking.
Dispersing.
Burning.
Awakening!
"!!!"
Maintaining the pose of reaching forward as though to grasp something, Ash abruptly sat up from where he had been lying. As his sleeping will finally woke, his hand grasped only empty air.
"Hah—hah—"
Ash panted heavily. The deep breaths drawn by his powerfully working lungs carried the rich, sobering scent of disinfectant alcohol. Of course, he understood what that meant.
This was Nursery City Central Hospital.
He had awakened three days later. Every bed around him was full, and people were even lying on benches in the corridors. Doctors rushed back and forth, drenched in sweat. The hospital was clearly operating beyond its limits.
What was Ash doing now?
Ash was watching television.
"The ultimate Doomsday Monster phenomenon that caused anomalies across the world and continuously swallowed people and cities began three days ago!"
The news anchor on television reported the grim situation with a face full of sorrow. Ash looked out the window. The skies of what seemed like the entire world had remained covered by dark clouds, with no sunlight in sight. It looked exactly like the end of the world.
"The Doomsday Monster phenomenon, first observed in the outskirts of Nursery City three days ago, has continued growing and expanding, eventually reaching a massive size of three thousand meters!"
"After the Rampage Energy released by the angel-like Doomsday Monster began enveloping the entire Earth, satellite observations have confirmed that two-thirds of the world has already been completely covered!"
The people around Ash were also watching television, but unlike him, their vacant faces were filled with numb despair.
"According to expert calculations... there is no solution."
"The United Nations' actions... have had no effect."
"Pretty Cure and Time Fire..." At this subject, which weighed so heavily on everyone's hearts, even the anchor seemed to choke up. "They still have not appeared. Perhaps they have already... failed."
Without even looking, Ash could sense people's despair about the future continuously giving off Rampage Energy, feeding the enemy as it blended into the air.
"At this rate, we can only walk the path of destruction."
"Everyone, goodbye."
With those words, the television lost its signal and turned into a flickering screen of static.
Yet no matter how long they waited.
No light appeared.
"It's hopeless, isn't it?"
"Why must humanity perish here?"
"Pretty Cure hasn't appeared this time either. In the face of something like this, even she must be powerless."
"Please, Pretty Cure, no matter what it takes, please show us God's miracle once again!"
Supporting himself with a crutch, Ash limped quickly through the irritating hospital corridor. He saw every kind of expression on the faces of people confronting a hopeless apocalypse, but in this world, all of their reactions could be summed up in one sentence.
They did not turn around and blame her for the hero's absence.
Before you continue