You said... you didn't know other people could produce Tomorrow Energy? Ash recalled the blue-haired woman who had reverted from a Doomsday Monster after witnessing Hana's true form that day, and understood.
This could be done. He just needed to wake Hana up himself.
"Thanks."
"Cough, cough—?" Hearing the thanks and feeling himself being pulled to his feet, Klein, whose heart was full of resentment, was momentarily unable to make sense of it.
"If you lied, I'll break your other arm too."
"What do you mean, other ar—Aaaahhh!"
With utter indifference, Ash grabbed his wrist and twisted hard in the opposite direction, snapping the man's arm amid his earth-shaking scream.
Adjusting the beret on his head, Ash walked alone toward the dark world that was still gradually expanding.
"Wait—"
Klein lay collapsed on the ground, clutching his arm, his face covered in blood, yet he still desperately roared at Ash's retreating back.
"You think you're this world's guardian? You think you can still save Nono Hana?! Don't you think that's hilarious?" His hair hung loose as he looked utterly deranged. "It's already impossible. All the Rampage Energy in the world is being drawn toward her, whose heart has been reversed. If you want to save the world, you'll have to kill her!"
And I saw it too. You have darkness just as deep! Darkness that makes flowers wither and prevents them from blooming!
Ash stopped.
"But you can't do that either. When you stand before Hana, she'll only show you how terrifying she is. All you'll see is her anger!!"
"Are you going to say next that you've mercifully abandoned this world?"
"What?"
Ash turned around and gave him a thoroughly mocking smile.
Ash no longer found this man hateful. He only found him laughable.
"I'll save Nono Hana, and I'll save the world. I'll do both."
"You saying it can't be done and refusing to do it proves nothing except that you're too much of a coward."
Without waiting for the clown behind him to continue spouting nonsense, Ash strode unwaveringly into the darkness.
Right now, he wanted to save a woman.
A woman he admitted he had fallen in love with.
When what was in his heart aligned with what he wanted to do, the voice of the world became clear!
Right now, I can do anything!
"Hana, if fate has decided you must become this way..."
The V-Commander on his arm, which had nearly been damaged beyond repair, had somehow become completely renewed within the darkness.
"Then I'll fight fate—and I'll win, just so you can see!"
His fingers touched the crimson beret atop his head. Facing the dark, writhing things closing in, Ash aimed at the device on his arm and let out a roaring shout that echoed through the heavens.
"Time Fire!"
The red beret soaring through the air ignited a spark that would set the plains ablaze.
Side Story Case File 74: A Spark That Ignites the Darkness
World, if you mean to take this woman's future from her...
Then I'll take her life back from your world!
(BGM: Crimson Comrade, Time Fire's Theme)
Flames—
Burning fire erupted from Ash's wrist, instantly spreading upward to consume his entire body.
It burned away his uniform, burned away his skin, burned away his face, revealing the burning red-and-silver mask beneath. Passing through the flames, the "Timeranger"—Time Fire—now revealed his true form as a warrior.
Honestly, if he faced Hana with this face, his heart could calm down. He would no longer feel embarrassed.
"Step, step, step—"
Passing through the dark world, Ash raced through streets flooded with Rampage Energy, drawing closer to where he remembered Nono Hana had been.
The surroundings made Ash frown beneath his mask. Honestly, he hadn't expected to find traces of humans still existing here.
These people, swallowed by darkness and declared missing by the outside world, had all been frozen in the exact actions they had been performing before being engulfed. Once the Rampage Energy born from despair at a future denied reached a certain density, it would halt time itself.
They weren't dead. They had merely been frozen in place, unable to move or think. Even after becoming the greatest, most evil, ultimate Doomsday Monster she feared and hated most, Nono Hana had done nothing beyond instinctively expanding her energy field. She had never taken a single life.
After all, she was a gentle girl who wanted everyone to live well, who wanted to cheer for everyone.
Now, if the Tomorrow Energy that had entered his body when she saved him during their first encounter hadn't been working within him, he too would have had his future frozen the instant he stepped inside.
"Even now, you're still thinking about protecting me?" Playing with the warm, pleasant golden energy flowing through his palm, the man's gaze beneath his mask softened. "What an idiot woman..."
Precisely because of that, as a man, he couldn't lose!
"Doomed—"
"Doomed—"
The DV Defender at his waist had already been drawn. Raising the weapon in Vulcan Gun mode, Ash charged wildly into the frozen time.
Then, even more darkness with physical forms surged in from all directions, calling out "Doomed!"
They were countless Doomsday Monsters. Ash recognized the leader among them, the one with its mouth opened absurdly wide.
Ash had seen it on the official Cure Yell support website, which had been meticulously maintained by dedicated staff. It was the first Doomsday Monster to appear in the world eight years ago, and also the first enemy Hana had defeated alone.
As for those behind it—the second, the third, the fourth... Ash recognized some of those forms as well. Eight years was a very long time.
"So you summoned all the nightmares of the past... Hana, are you that afraid?"
Several orange beams gathered and erupted from the muzzle, melting through the Doomsday Monsters before him. Hearing their cries behind him, Ash flipped backward over a descending fist, landed on that Doomsday Monster's neck, and pulled its hair from side to side, somehow steering it like a vehicle as it rampaged through the enemy horde.
"It's okay. I'm coming to save you now, so wait for me!"
Ash was drenched in sweat.
Ash was fighting with everything he had.
Honestly, he wasn't very confident he could defeat Nono Hana as she was now.
This might well become the place where he met his end.
But a man fighting for a woman until death... didn't that sound pretty good too?
If he never returned, then he never returned.
Punching, flying-kicking, smashing through a building, Ash rained furious fists and kicks upon the Doomsday Monsters, experiencing everything Hana had endured over eight years.
Why am I fighting so desperately?
The DV Defenders in both hands roared in fury. Blazing light pierced through the Doomsday Monster's body and the skyscraper behind it, only to be obscured by more darkness.
Why do I pull the trigger?
The Guardian Sword's compressed freezing light sliced the monster before him into two tiny dolls, mixing them with even more dust.
Before inhuman things, I raise my voice and roar.
Before he realized it, even more darkness had flowed into Ash's body, merging with the growing Tomorrow Energy and making him fight ever more fiercely.
This is Ash.
The crimson warrior stood atop the corpses of darkness, staring at the massive tentacled body piercing the sky in the distance and desperately reaching out his hand.
This is Time Fire.
"Yaaahhhhhhh—!"
Among countless gigantic monsters, amid the tide that was about to swallow him whole, Ash threw his head back and roared.
"Boom—"
A torrent of scorching energy shot past Ash's dodging back, instantly clearing out the area around him. The Doomsday Monsters scattered in all directions as though they had encountered their natural enemy.
What was that? That beam nearly took me down. So suspicious... what is that?
"V rex?" Lowering the hand shielding his eyes, Ash looked at the steel beast before him in confusion.
What's going on? I deliberately left it outside because I was afraid it would shut down in all this Rampage Energy.
"Roar—"
With a roar, the gigantic steel tail descended like a sword from heaven, covering the entire area where Ash stood. Ash dove forward in a miserable scramble, narrowly escaping the earthquake-like crash behind him.
"What's wrong, V rex? Don't you recognize me?!"
The roaring steel dragon seemed to have no reaction to the V-Commander Ash was calling out with.
Wait, looking closely, something was wrong. Most of its structure was made of Rampage Energy. This V rex wasn't his! Was this... Hana's nightmare too?
"Hana... are you really that afraid now?"
Standing amid the ruins, Ash muttered to himself as he faced the dragon that opened its metallic fangs and roared at him.
"Roar—"
An identical roar came from a skyscraper beside the gigantic tyrannosaur Doomsday Monster. The metallic tyrannosaur time machine smashed through the reinforced concrete in its path and rammed the tyrannosaur trying to devour Ash, sending it flying backward.
"You can control it."
The voice from the Commander reminded Ash that the enormous silver-and-red tyrannosaur watching him was the Super AI core created by his own hands. Even without a voice circuit installed, Ash could still understand what it meant.
"Go!"
Spreading his arms, Ash leaped toward the mechanical tyrannosaur as it lowered its head.
As a voice-controlled construct, V rex had no cockpit. Ash stood atop the Timeranger emblem on the steel dragon's head, joining the Super AI beneath his feet as they watched warily as the tyrannosaur Doomsday Monster wailed and rose to its feet, like a recolored V rex.
The super robot and its super pilot now faced what Ash needed to do.
Pressing the button on the Commander attached to his arm, Ash issued his order with a low growl.
"V rex Attack!"
"Roar—!"
The warrior's roar and the tyrannosaur's roar overlapped as one.
Side Story Case File 75: Save the One I Love!
(BGM: Awaken! V-Rex Robo!!)
"Thud, thud, thud—!"
The colossal footsteps conveyed overwhelming force, their sound mixed with the rumble of an awakening earthquake. As though they meant to tear this darkness, thicker than the night itself, into pieces, they thundered ever closer. The enormous four-toed beast feet, carrying 8,500 tons of weight, shattered the road beneath them with every step, sending dust soaring dozens of meters into the air.
It reached a running speed of 100 km/h. The enormous rushing shadow displayed utterly unreasonable speed, its gigantic steel feet constantly crushing the roads below and the abandoned, empty cars upon them. Weaving between skyscrapers, the huge mechanical dinosaur swung its legs and ran wildly through a twenty-first-century city.
The beast, a fusion of future and antiquity, raced with its body lowered and its two small claws swinging. Its overwhelmingly shocking power shattered every pane of glass in the buildings around its path, and the scattering shards carved flaming trails beneath the dim black light.
What a magnificent sight. If anyone whose heart still burned with the Soul of Steel saw this scene, they would surely raise their arms and cheer like fanatics.
"Rex Laser!"
Through Ash's roar at the V-Commander on his arm, the running V rex received the order and lowered its head slightly. The two laser cannons behind Ash, mounted on the dinosaur's back, rose amid the violent grinding of metal gears and aimed at the "impostor" that had just gotten back up.
Light flashed from the extended barrels. Crimson particles accumulated within the cannons, and the overflowing energy circuits dyed their interiors red-hot. Spiral patterns like genetic code gathered within the barrels, while the heat vents on its back expelled waste heat and emitted dazzling light.
The light at the center of the muzzles grew brighter and brighter, expanding until it burst!
Divine thunder that split apart everything shattered the darkness.
The instant it struck the tyrannosaur Doomsday Monster, it triggered a violent explosion. The Rampage Energy within its body clashed with the laser light and churned violently.
The dazzling flash of the explosion lit up the dark world for an instant. The tyrannosaur Doomsday Monster's body visibly tilted. The attack was devastatingly effective!
But more Rampage Energy quickly surged in, repairing the gaping hole before Ash's eyes. After all, this was the enemy's home ground. They held no advantage here.
The counterfeit V rex—or rather, based on Hana's memories, it should be called the tyrannosaur Doomsday Monster—now launched a full-force counterattack at Ash. It spewed flames hot enough to melt metal from its mouth, while the cannons covering its entire body lit up as well, firing flames together at the metallic tyrannosaur before it.
Before you continue