Hana's cheeks were just as red as she deliberately blew a breath against Ash's nose, her brighter, livelier, passion-filled eyes radiating tender charm.
"This is all Ash's fault. Whether it's tall Homare, pretty Saya, or even cute Emiru, they're all more attractive than me. It's all Ash's fault for choosing me out of so many wonderful girls. That makes Hana feel insecure, afraid her boyfriend might get stolen away, so..."
"Men who look around carelessly and women who make careless jokes need to learn who Ash's girlfriend really is~"
Her slender, slightly curled fingers pressed against the man's chest. As her hips wriggled backward to adjust into a comfortable position, Nono Hana held herself back from sitting down, then smiled as her small lilac tongue slid across her pink lips before taking him in.
"And yesterday, when you were on top of me, relying on that monster body of yours, weren't you being way too reckless?"
Ash opened his mouth, but faced with such naked jealousy and love, he found himself unable to say a single word.
"So..."
"Ash needs to learn just how amazing Kotori is as a woman!"
Case File 88: The Happiness I Want to Share with You
"They did it, didn't they?"
"They actually did it?"
"They definitely did! They must've done everything they should and shouldn't have done!"
Rubbing her still-warm stomach with her right hand, Nono Hana gave off an utterly languid air. Hearing her friends whispering among themselves, the embarrassed yet healthy flush on her face deepened even further.
Damn Ash... He still had that much energy after doing that? Are all men monsters? Seriously, I'm Cure Yell! I wouldn't even be scared of arm-wrestling a Doomsday Monster three stories tall, yet I still lost again? This is so embarrassing!
"Still, I never expected the first one among us to betray our friendship would be the always-unremarkable Kotori." Homare let out a long sigh and glanced again at Hana, whose entire face had gone warm and limp. Her voice was thick with sourness. "So this is the expression of someone who has a boyfriend? How wonderful..."
"I heard all of that."
"Hahaha! Run!"
Watching her friends flee from her with cheerful grins, Hana, who had been filled with happiness inside and out, kept that foolish, overflowing smile on her face, looking like she had no desire to change back yet.
The future was no longer an unchangeable despair whose end could not be seen. Though she still lived a life burdened by responsibility and fate, her world was no longer filled only with pain. She had found hope strong enough to keep her going.
After all, she had never stopped fighting since she was a girl, all the way until she became an independent woman. She had truly experienced countless hardships, pains, and the sufferings called reality. A person like her deserved to embrace happiness in the days to come, didn't she?
She sincerely hoped so.
"Ash..."
"Yo." Speak of Ash, and Ash appeared. The man had already come up behind her after putting down his phone. "What's this? It looks like everyone's become happier, not just you?"
"Yeah! That day, everyone's Tomorrow Energy was awakened!" Hana was referring to the miracle Ash had caused when he reclaimed Ai, awakening the entire world. "I think everyone was able to see hope for the future too!"
"It wasn't just that, Hana."
He brought his fingers together and lifted her pink bangs, then lightly tapped her smooth forehead.
"You didn't just save the world as Cure Yell. As Nono Hana, you've also supported your friends. In other words, you saved them too."
"Hehe, is that so?"
Hana scratched her cheek a little embarrassedly. She did not think there was anything special about how she got along with her friends, so she could not quite understand what Ash meant.
"After Homare stood back up, she could return to work, but she said she wanted to try practicing skating again from scratch. She said she wanted to take the first step toward what she loved, just like me."
"Emiru said she had a lot of fun that day, so she wanted to try forming a band like that and give her family a huge surprise!"
"As for Saya, she said she wanted to temporarily leave the entertainment industry and properly search for what she truly wanted... It'll be a difficult journey, but I believe she'll find it. After all, she's Saya!"
Nono Hana went on and on about her friends' recent goals. Honestly, in Ash's eyes, those goals were not necessarily the best choices for them right now. But so what? They were choices they had made for themselves. When had choosing ever meant getting the best of both worlds?
"They might not necessarily be the right choices, but everyone found their own change and happiness... just like I did. Is that what you mean, Ash?"
"Hehe. You can understand it that way, Kotori."
Without intending to explain further, the man could not help smiling as he gently reached out. When his fingers brushed through her pink hair, he immediately felt its smooth, warm familiarity. Enjoying that soft touch as well, Hana—no longer as easily startled as before—lightly narrowed her eyes like a kitten. As she felt Ash's concern and gentleness, the two of them filled the scene with a quiet, peaceful atmosphere.
"Um... Ash. I-I really can relax like this, and keep being happy with you forever, right?"
Even now, Hana felt that everything she had received was so unreal. Even though she had truly embraced the person before her many times, her lack of security still made her repeatedly seek confirmation from Ash without ever growing tired of it.
But this time, Hana did not receive his usual reply. After a moment of silence, she looked up and met the deep concern hidden in his eyes.
"I want to protect this peace between you and the world. For that, even if I have to burn away everything I have... even if I'm smashed to pieces!"
"Don't say that."
The man cupped her face and kissed her forehead.
"I'll always love you and protect you."
Everything you love, I'll protect it until the very last moment.
"Ash?"
Feeling the embrace around her shoulders that still refused to let go, even Hana let out a puzzled sound.
Ash, do you... have something on your mind?
"Don't talk. At least for now..."
At least at a time like this, let me spend a little more time with you, feeling this...
"Yo, you're here!"
Seeing Ash push open the door and enter the late-night bar, the old man sitting at the bar on the other side, arranging beans, hurriedly waved and greeted him.
Hearing the voice, Ash could not help raising an eyebrow. This old geezer in a tailcoat and top hat, dressed up in an outrageously flamboyant manner, was Dr. Traum—the man who had called him and delivered information during the previous decisive battle, claiming to be that lunatic ex-husband's teacher.
"Hmph."
Remembering the man's final warning that he had to choose one of two options, Ash sat beside him and gave a disdainful snort.
"It seems the future isn't the unchangeable despair you people claimed it was. I saved both the world and Hana, and I didn't lose anything more in the process."
"Yes, the future really can change..." Traum did not rise to the provocation. He shook his head and poured himself a glass of whiskey. "But fate had already marked the price for everything from the very beginning. It only depends on whether you have the resolve to be ruthless enough."
"Sorry, but I happen to be good at bargaining." Ash's loosely curled hand slowly closed inward, tightening as if it had grasped something. "When necessary, I'll just take it by force... After all, I'm a bad guy."
I'm prepared to die now, but that doesn't mean I actually have to die! After all...
She would definitely be sad.
"Then I wish you every success."
Traum raised his glass, toasting him as though seeing off a warrior before draining it in one gulp.
Case File 89: The Darkness Behind Happiness
After a drink went down, Traum seemed to open up, saying quite a few things.
"I do envy you. You walked all the way down a dark path, yet for someone else's sake, you forcibly turned yourself back before the ending." Thinking of something, the doctor could not help shaking his head. "That person only ever watched from the side... Perhaps what he lacked was a heart like yours."
"Unfortunately... if I could change anything, I would want to change the past."
Perhaps he had some unspeakable reason. Even through the glass he raised, Ash could see that Traum's eyes had darkened considerably.
"That's enough nonsense, old... sir. Tell me, why did you call at such a crucial moment before?" Since the man had helped him to some extent and Ash had not sensed any malice from him, he did not use an overly disrespectful form of address. "If you came together with that useless loser, you should strike first now. That's your only chance of winning at this distance."
"No, this time I only represent myself. I wanted to speak with the victor who reclaimed the future, because you accomplished what neither George nor I could."
Pretending not to hear the hostility in Ash's words, Traum laughed loudly and called the bartender over.
"I think you're amazing, kid! What are you having? Beer, or something strong like vodka? It's on me~"
"No."
Ash crossed his legs in a different position and, with a serious expression, made a request so earnest that even the confident bartender froze for a moment.
"Give me a glass of milk."
"Kid, this is a bar..." Wiping away sweat that had somehow appeared on his forehead, Traum began to understand what Klein meant when he called this man shameless.
"That's why I want milk."
Ash's crossed leg beneath the bar kept tapping in a strangely amusing rhythm.
Don't you think this is interesting?
"Much appreciated."
Ash raised the milk before him and drained it in one gulp. Mm... pure milk, just how I like it.
"Though I'm not at the point of adding goji berries yet... I know you have a lot of questions, but don't ask them yet. Let me ask first."
"Where is Klein right now?"
For Hana's ex-husband, who had called himself Nono Hana's husband, expecting Ash to have a good impression of him was truly asking too much.
Thinking about it carefully, he had only beaten him up and dislocated one of his arms because he had gone easy on him for Hana's sake.
Looking back now, that guy kept insisting Hana could not be saved, only for Ash to slap him in the face afterward. What if he suddenly started ranting about how much it hurt and decided that, even if he could not have a good life, he would drag Hana and Ash down with him?
"Mm, why are you asking that?"
"Of course, to mock him and tell him I love Hana more than he does." Without changing expression or missing a beat, Ash raised his cup, signaling the bartender to refill his milk. "Hmm, if we're following tradition, I should send him a videotape so he can experience despair... Forget it. I don't have a cuckold fetish. I have no interest in letting someone else see my woman's body."
"You... must have offended quite a lot of people."
Traum considered himself a scientist with few moral boundaries, hardly a kind and virtuous man. Yet hearing the naked contempt and malice toward Klein in Ash's words still sent a chill down his spine.
What kind of lover had Nono Hana found this time? Killing someone was not enough for him—he had to destroy their heart too...
"I'm that guy's teacher. Besides using Rampage Energy, the reason he could travel to other timelines was because he used the time machine I developed." Noticing Ash's gaze turn toward him, Traum calmly filled another glass for himself. "So I can tell you that he has already returned to that destroyed future."
"Your actions probably provoked him. He said you aren't the only one capable of doing this. In the next world, he'll be the one making the decisions too."
"Tch. Cowards only know how to run." Ash had little interest in Klein's loser talk. Though he was relieved to hear that Klein had left, he somehow felt deeply disappointed as well. "I was thinking I could make him regret it next time."
"Kid, if you don't learn to rein yourself in, you'll eventually suffer a nasty fall."
After setting down his glass, Traum felt his head growing somewhat dizzy. The old man lamented that his body was no longer what it used to be, then refocused on Ash without forgetting his true purpose.
"I, Traum, consider myself an inventor. My expertise lies mainly in spacetime structures and artificial intelligence capable of self-learning and thought, so Mr. Ash, let's get straight to the point."
"Your dinosaur-shaped robot possesses more than the ability to act automatically. It has achieved strong artificial intelligence... no, perhaps something beyond even that."
"I want the source code for that AI."
While the other man observed him, Ash observed him in return. He could clearly see the man's desire for it and... reluctance?
"I don't remember owing you such a huge favor."
"I can trade information for it."
Ash spread his hands, signaling for him to continue.
"Tomorrow Energy is the natural energy generated when humans feel hope and longing for the future, while Rampage Energy is produced from the exact opposite. Therefore, the two actually complement each other at all times. Neither can truly eliminate the other completely, unless the swelling energy reaches the point of destroying the world."
As he said this, Traum could not help sighing. In the world he and Klein came from, after Nono Hana, the Pretty Cure, died, Rampage Energy—having lost its restraint—swelled and destroyed the world.
"As someone who was once acknowledged by Tomorrow Energy, you understand the rules by which this world operates, don't you?"
Ash nodded, but that still did not explain why the longer he stayed in this world, the stronger his uneasy premonition became.
"You once caused your own Mirai Crystal to appear. That was proof that this world acknowledged you, essentially making you the Child of the World in Nono Hana's place."
"If things had stopped there, it would have been nothing but happiness for you. But then, in order to save her, you shattered the crystal and divided its power."
"What's the problem?"
"The problem is enormous! Don't you remember what I said? Darkness and light complement each other!" As if to confirm Ash's uneasy premonition, Traum waved his arms exaggeratedly before him.
"Since you completely rejected the light, darkness naturally came looking for you—the Rampage Energy of this world! They want to make you their human pillar and turn into your deepest nightmare... Hmm, you haven't encountered a lot of dark things before, have you?"
Crack.
The glass of milk shattered in Ash's stiff hand, scattering shards everywhere. Blood from the cuts mixed with milk and flowed onto the floor.
With an expression that said, See? What did I tell you?, Traum watched Ash take the handkerchief the bartender offered, then casually wipe the blood from his dripping palm.
Before you continue