They could only keep praying to and begging Pretty Cure.
"Precure—please!"
"Time Fire, I'll never say anything bad about you again, please—"
"Precure!"
"Precure!!"
"Precure!!!"
The sound of Ash nearly grinding his molars apart and clenching his fists tightly into his palms was clearly audible.
"Isn't this—enough already!!??"
Ash roared like a sleeping lion suddenly awakened, the soul-shaking bellow instantly silencing the surrounding noise and drawing everyone's eyes to him.
The man with the twitching mouth tore off the bandages wrapped around his face in one motion. A lock of pale black hair fell over his forehead, while his short hair stood up like hedgehog spines and fluttered wildly in the wind.
He rarely spoke so emotionally.
But that did not mean he never did.
"Precure—Hana has done so much for you!"
"By now, isn't it enough!?"
Case File 70: Uncontainable Rage and the Heart to Save
At that moment, everyone's gaze was focused on the man standing atop the hospital bed, his entire body wrapped in bandages like a mummy.
One of his feet rested on the bedside cabinet, yet no one rebuked him or told him to be quiet.
Because of the atmosphere that seemed to be heating up.
Because of the pressure radiating from the man, gradually exploding until it nearly made people unable to breathe.
Ash was angry.
Ash was furious.
As Ash looked at those cowardly turtles staring at him, those idiots, he was so damn, utterly, unbelievably furious!
"What the hell are you doing!?"
"She alone—not a soldier, not a police officer, with no responsibility or obligation whatsoever—she was just a girl! Yet from the age of thirteen, she had shouldered every injury and exhaustion alone, protecting you for eight years!"
"Not eight hours, not eight days, not even eight months—it's eight fucking years! Eight years, you bastards!"
Eyes bloodshot, Ash pointed at everyone's noses and cursed them out without caring about anything.
"Forget a girl who endured all those hardships, who was so afraid of worrying her family and friends that she didn't even dare go to a proper hospital! Even fucking Tiga would have had his warning light blinking red after protecting a planet for eight years!"
Watching a girl bleed herself dry for you... did none of you have even a shred of human shame? Are all the men here just women who ought to get their balls cut off?!
You people with that thing hanging between your legs, can you still call yourselves men? Do you even have balls?!
"She safeguarded your futures, and she desperately cheered on those who had fallen into despair over the future and created Rampage Energy, letting you stand back up again."
"Now she can't fight anymore, and she doesn't want to fight anymore! She wants warmth too! She wants rest too! She needs help!"
"Even just shouting one word of encouragement would be enough. This is when she needs you—! What are you doing? Tell me, what the hell are you doing!?"
With his eyes wide in fury, Ash vented by explosively tearing the bandages off his body and hands.
"You're praying. Even now, you're still fucking begging her to work overtime and save you useless cowards one more time. Fucking disgusting—"
Disgusting. Even when I was a villain deliberately provoking heroes, I never did something like this. It's so fucking disgusting!
"Compared to certain others of your kind, you humans have indeed shown first-rate character. At least you've never done something disgusting like stabbing the people protecting you in the back... but have your human courage and spirit been castrated too?!"
Of course—I know perfectly well that human weapons are useless against monsters born entirely from the heart. Humans can do nothing... is that it?!
"That blue woman—Yakushiji Saaya—when she saw her friend, she was even able to awaken on her own and break free from the Doomsday Monster's state. That means Tomorrow Energy was never something that belonged to her alone. It is something every one of you might be capable of wielding!"
"Then why can't you do it—"
Because you can't do it.
So you just naturally do nothing at all?!
"God damn! For that poor woman's sake, answer me!"
The crowd fell silent as cicadas in winter. Not a single person could answer Ash's question.
Ash understood very well what he was doing. He also knew how ridiculous his actions looked.
But he did not care, nor did he need to care.
I'm angry. I'm venting. I'm throwing a tantrum at people who have nothing to do with this? That's right. I'm fucking going to throw a tantrum on behalf of Hana, who says nothing and just silently bears everything!
"The patient over there—!"
Finally, someone broke the suffocating atmosphere that had nearly reached its limit. Several doctors hurried over toward the disturbance.
"It's already come to this. No matter what the issue is, even for that Precure's sake, please stop fighting!"
"Sir, please, your injuries... please return to your bed!"
Ash took a deep breath, then let out a long sigh.
"Go help the patients who need you more."
Throwing aside his crutch, Ash leaped out the window under the doctors' wide-eyed stares.
"I still have other things to do."
I'm very busy. I don't have time to be injured.
For example, saving someone.
"A-Ash-sensei—?!"
Along with the sound of something heavy hitting the ground, a shocked yet familiar voice called Ash's name amid the clatter from his hands.
"Nono... Kotori."
The bucket in her hands fell to the ground as she let go. Her hair slightly disheveled, the girl stared open-mouthed at Ash, who rolled to cushion his landing while wearing nothing but a hospital gown.
I don't have an answer I can give you right now, so... sorry.
"Wait, don't go!"
"Please, my sister—my sister, is she... is she...!"
The trembling and sincere emotion in her tearful voice forced Ash to stop. The answer she seemed to be pleading for was reflected in her tear-filled eyes.
"Is my sister... is she Cure Yell?!"
After a moment of silence, Ash nodded beneath her gaze, where hope and despair coexisted.
"My parents and I actually suspected it for a long time. My sister always came home covered in injuries. Late at night, she would sneak back home, and whenever a Doomsday Monster disaster happened, she always told us to run first. But... if that's true!"
If her sister was Cure Yell, then she had to be in there!
Looking toward the Ultimate Doomsday Monster enveloping the world, Kotori finally could not endure any longer. Her knees gave out, and she collapsed onto them as tears streamed uncontrollably through the gaps between the fingers covering her face.
"Our father... three days ago, while helping the employees under him, was struck on the head by falling rubble. He still hasn't escaped danger..."
"Mother is about to collapse from exhaustion because of Father, so I thought that no matter what, I had to find my sister. At least... at least let them see each other once..."
"Why, why—Sister! Father! Sob... waaah!"
"Your sister is still alive."
Those words made the sobbing Kotori immediately raise her head. The man crouched down until he was at her eye level, his eyes burning with an iron-like determination.
"I guarantee it."
The man pointed toward the sky shrouded in dark clouds.
"The sun will appear in the sky again."
"Nono Hana will return to your family."
Because—
I am the flame that burns everything away.
"I'll drag her out of the darkness."
Case File 71: Solving Personal Conflicts
Dressed in a hospital gown, Ash walked quickly down the street, one hand bracing his waist like a character in Resident Evil after his health had dropped into the yellow.
The once-prosperous street was now empty beneath the gloom of eternal night. Everywhere lay a mess of abandoned luggage and vehicles left haphazardly parked, making it clear their owners had fled in a panic.
"This really is... a scene worthy of the end of the world."
Because the average moral standards in this world were so high, humanity had gone centuries without war and had long since ceased needing armies. Thus, aside from police who maintained basic order, people had no other defensive forces. This was also why, even after Doomsday Monster incidents had become a global norm over the past eight years, no one had tried solving them by other means.
After all, as long as there were Pretty Cure, we could sleep easy... Ash himself was almost amused by that joke.
"In other worlds, at a time like this, even if there were no other options, at least a few planes should fly overhead before crashing..."
Ash looked up at the sky. The clouds and perpetual twilight overhead showed Rampage Energy had gained an overwhelming victory.
"Pretty Cure's Tomorrow Energy comes from the vitality and hope in people's hearts—their yearning for a beautiful future. In contrast, Rampage Energy comes from the despair people feel when they grow weary of an uncertain future."
"Since both are powers born from the human heart, would eliminating all humans effectively curb the spread of Rampage Energy?"
Ash casually pocketed two candies from a store and tossed them into his mouth to replenish his energy. His mind raced as he calmly planned something truly horrifying.
"Humanity has no army. If I use V-Rex, the odds of wiping them all out within three days exceed ninety percent..."
After a round of calculations based on the principle of when in doubt, blame quantum mechanics, Ash concluded that the plan was feasible. Just as he raised his wrist, he froze for a moment before shaking his head and lowering it.
"No. Even Hana as she is now would cry."
But if he did not do that, then—
Saving the world and saving Nono Hana were actually the same thing. The entire world could only rely on him.
As he finally neared the place where everything had begun that day, the darkness grew ever denser, and Ash saw a blockade set up ahead.
"Sir!" A police officer standing alert behind a patrol car was visibly shocked to see a man in a hospital gown striding rapidly toward them, but immediately stopped him. "Please leave quickly. Up ahead is the Doomsday Monster's range of influence. It's very dangerous!"
"Danger is exactly what I want. Move."
"How could I possibly do that?" The officer continued blocking Ash with a stern expression. "Sir, you're still a patient, aren't you? No matter what's happening ahead, please go back. The Doomsday Monster's affected area is still expanding, but before it reaches here, I can't let even more people suffer!"
"Looks like there are still people in this world with some guts."
If I can know that, then perhaps I can even find some hope for this world's future.
"You'll definitely become a good police officer someday."
After saying that, Ash propped the young officer—who had been knocked unconscious by a punch to the stomach—against the passenger seat of the patrol car. Then he put on the blue-gray uniform and equipment he had "kindly gifted" him, still complete with its sash. After rummaging through the storage compartment, he found a red beret, dusted it off, and placed it on his head. It fit perfectly.
"Alright, next is..."
Ash was about to step into the darkness when he suddenly stopped. Undoing the holster at his waist, he drew his revolver in an instant like a cowboy from an American Western and aimed it behind him. Under his dangerous hawk-like gaze, a disheveled young man emerged with both hands raised.
It was the stalker who had been following Nono Hana. Ash had beaten him up only days ago, and the marks from then had not even faded yet.
"What, you saw me make a fool of myself, and now you've come to laugh at me?"
"And what if I have?" The man's swollen, bruised left eye made the corner of his mouth twitch. "I did once place great hopes on you, but time has still led everything to its destined result. What I told you, when have you ever listened—"
"Bang!"
Smoke rose from the barrel of the police revolver. The bullet grazed his scalp and burrowed into the wall behind him.
"Do you know why I have such deep hostility toward you?"
The still-smoking, scorching barrel pointed directly at his forehead.
"It's not only because you're a peeping stalker who followed my Hana. I couldn't stand the way you talked from the very beginning."
"Hana isn't yours either." The man said something startling, and his expression twisted slightly as he spoke.
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