Kamen Rider Is Playing the Villain in Pretty Cure

"So, kid, if you want to save this world, think of another way."

"Here's the Super AI data you wanted."

Ash pulled out a Memory and flicked it in front of Traum. Just as Traum happily reached to take it, Ash's hand followed and pressed down on the Memory, preventing him from taking it.

"What do you mean by this?"

"You said you had technical data from your specialized AI research. I want that too."

"That doesn't make for a trade, kid."

Another red-and-blue Memory was flicked before him.

"Dr. Komyo-ji's research on the Conscience Circuit... something that can make a machine truly become human."

"Deal!"

Side Story Case File 90: Tomorrow Has Yet to Arrive

"Oysters..."

Hearing the pink-haired beauty murmuring in her sleep beside him, Ash opened his eyes from the warm bed. His senses had not yet deteriorated, allowing him to still smell the traces of what they had done last night.

How long had it been since he had been able to lie carefree in the arms of happiness without thinking about battle, even sleeping naturally until he woke up?

Ash carefully searched his memories, pondering the few that had yet to fade, until he realized he could not remember at all.

Ah. So happiness... was something I was experiencing for the first time.

It was Hana's first time too, so perhaps that was why they had come together so naturally?

"Slurp~ Ash... I can't eat anymore..."

"You do know not to overeat, huh?"

Somewhat irritably, he pushed Hana aside. Her sleeping posture was indecent enough that she was nearly straddling his head. After pulling away the blanket covering her, he casually caught the strap of her pajamas as it slid down to her shoulder. Ash prepared to begin the routine examination he still had to carry out today.

His fingers continually glided across Nono Hana's snow-white, creamy skin, making the girl occasionally let out soft giggles even in her sleep.

He spread his fingers across her chest, gently brushing the pinkish-red scar with his fingertips. It was the mark that Cure Yell and Time Fire had once left on each other's chests in a mutual "death blow." Compared to the savage scar on his own left chest, Hana's scar was slowly healing beneath Tomorrow Energy.

"Physical examination... okay."

Ever since Ash had begun caring for her so closely, and Hana painfully swallowed the specially prepared medicine every day, the burden on her Pretty Cure body had eased. Her body was recovering at a rate that made it seem renewed every night. Before long, she would surely bid farewell to her former sickly state and reclaim the healthy body that belonged to her.

"All right, then next..."

He left the warmth at her side and changed into clothes for going out with the gentlest movements he could manage, lest he wake her. Only when everything was ready and he was about to leave did he notice that her hand had somehow caught the hem of his clothes again.

Carefully loosening her hand as though handling some precious treasure, Ash walked to the window and pulled open a corner of the curtains in Nono Hana's room. He saw droplets of water clinging to the glass.

It was raining.

I walked through my own "home," looked upon the sleeping flowers and grass, kissed her sleeping face, then once more took the step that remained, walking toward the direction that had been fated from the very beginning...

"Time to work."

Whenever countless raindrops fell from the sky, landing on my hair and clothes, I remembered her cheers for me on that pouring night. In that quiet midnight, I could hear the rain softly tapping against the stable roof.

It was so peaceful.

There had originally been a place downstairs in the Nono family home for storing miscellaneous items. However, after Ash had spoken with the owners some time ago, he had expanded it into something resembling a private underground workshop.

He started a Max Power Engine dismantled from some fighter jet, one that supplied electricity exclusively to the basement. As the lights came on layer by layer, countless holographic displays and mechanical facilities brimming with science-fiction flair unfolded before Ash. Yet the most eye-catching thing of all was what lay on the workbench at the center of it all.

An angular metal robot lay on the workbench. From the partition at its center, its body was divided into a red left half and a blue right half. Whether it was the red Conscience Circuit section or the blue Battle Circuit section, the data displayed on the computer showed that both were currently in perfect condition!

"The data Traum gave me is actually pretty useful. I almost feel like praising him."

Using the AI data he had traded for, named "Lulu V 1.0," Ash had successfully made several entirely different technologies compatible within a single robot. Only then had he had the chance to create this machine.

Likewise, having obtained intelligence from Traum, Ash had no intention of simply waiting for death. Even if he was going to die, he had to do something before then.

The body made of special alloy that could repair itself went without saying. The core hardware and software forming this "machine body" included the HumaGear's "Technological Singularity," Kikaider's Conscience Circuit capable of distinguishing good from evil, Metalder's omnipotent Battle Circuit, and a Super AI chip copied from Stronger Parson.

Its basic network came from Vaglass's hacking technology, while the method of assembling all those components employed the formula of the B-Series Robot. After putting it together with Chebur Star People technology he had secretly learned, Ash had even used the biological technologies of Yapool and the Modified Experiment Empire Mess because he worried that complete mechanization would be too limiting. In the end, he had even added the mystical power Great Witch Pandora had taught him.

All that painstaking effort had ultimately created the masterpiece before Ash: this "robot construct."

"Almost there. Almost there."

Seeing all of his data being imported into the robot's core, Ash revealed the joy of a bountiful harvest.

In truth, it was not only Rampage Energy. Even the system had said that he was almost certainly going to die. If that was the case, he could not leave Hana alone in the pain of widowhood, could he? After finally receiving her love, being forced to separate in the end would be far too cruel for her.

In that case, he would use this technology to create an incomparably strong, indestructible "me"! That version of him could keep protecting her and loving her after he was gone. Hana's happiness could continue...

"Happiness..."

"Her happiness..."

Thinking of the less than a month they had spent together, thinking of all the times she had been by his side, of the happiness when that pink-haired woman leaned against his shoulder and entrusted herself to him completely, Ash's relaxed expression gradually changed.

Just as the robot reached ninety-nine percent completion and was about to finish reading the data, Ash roared and kicked it off the workbench.

"Scrap metal like this can't make her happy at all!"

Hana's happiness only existed when she was with me!

"Ahhh..."

He clutched his head and collapsed into a sitting position, ignoring the machine's eyes as they flickered a few times after rolling onto the floor, then went dark again. Ash himself let out a pained sound.

Hana... tell me, what should I do?

"What are you worrying about?"

A familiar presence approached from behind. Hana's arms wrapped around him from the rear, gently embracing him and warming Ash.

"I'm worrying about how to make you happy." The bitter words were almost impossible to say.

"You don't need to say anything else. As long as I can be with Ash, whether it's for a minute or a second, Kotori is happy."

"Hana..."

I know every word you said is true.

But that is exactly what troubles me.

Side Story Case File 91: A Dream?

["Your body has mostly recovered, but don't think that means you can mess around like before. It's already so late. Go to sleep soon."]

"Hehe." Hearing the concern in the man's voice grow more obvious over the phone, sweetness and happiness nearly flowed from her face like honey. "Got it, Mr. Boyfriend! Well then, good night."

["...Good night."]

Holding that sweetness in her heart, the pink-haired woman closed her eyes in contentment.

I am Nono Hana.

I was a hopeless woman who had been bullied since childhood and could do nothing right. I was bad at studying, bad at understanding the world, and even my most basic ability to read the room was a complete mess. As a result, the company I had worked so hard to establish eventually went bankrupt.

Even after growing up, when I tried to say goodbye to my listless past self and act more cheerful, I only ended up looking more like a red-nosed clown performing in a circus.

From the outside, I was a gloomy, dispirited woman with no sense of beauty at all. Other than my few friends and family, nobody else on the street would spare me a second glance, would they?

I am Cure Yell.

Several years ago, I appeared in this world still looking like a middle school student. I was the only "light" capable of opposing Rampage Energy, a legendary warrior who fought Doomsday Monsters—a Pretty Cure.

To outsiders who did not know her true identity, Cure Yell was so powerful and beautiful, humanity's "last shield" who would always rise again to fight in order to protect them.

Yet beneath that string of impressive titles, no one had ever seen the little girl who ran marathons while coughing blood, who fell to the ground in pain and could barely stand again.

Until... he appeared.

That person—the man who had done both right and wrong, who had taken so many detours, yet in the end healed me in both body and heart.

He was like a spark that flew into my "world," heedlessly burning away everything that blocked his path, including all the things that had plagued me for so long.

My beloved came to save me by riding a giant mechanical dinosaur wreathed in flames... Hehe, that was really not romantic at all for a fairy tale.

He really was such a strange person... Ash~

Clearly, everything was so happy.

He loved me, and I loved him.

He would protect me, and of course I would protect this world, protect our little home, and protect him! I would protect this hard-won happiness!

All suffering had finally reached its end, allowing me to have this beautiful happiness too...

That was what I had thought...

It should have been so...

Until I had a dream.

In the dream, I became a tall, handsome man with a solid, dependable chest.

The man in the dream was high-spirited, yet could not find his goal. Only after losing it did he realize, before that bone-deep pain, just how important the thing he had lost truly was.

Yet although the man in the dream was in pain and grief, he did not sink into despair. He charged forward without hesitation. Whether it was courage or recklessness, he simply chose to follow the goal in his heart without doubt or confusion, smashing every "wall" blocking his way!

Later, the man experienced a happiness he had never known before through a woman. Having never understood such feelings, he was easily satisfied.

The contented man enjoyed and felt that "love." He did not mind changing his original nature. Now that he had someone he wanted to possess and protect, he was willing to set everything else aside and fight for her.

Only...

The man was running.

"Ash..."

Hana's sleeping face twisted with pain and anguish. Sweat poured down her, quickly soaking the pillowcase and her clothes.

The man was fighting.

"...Ash..."

Hana tossed and turned within the nightmare, calling the man's name, but no one answered her. Her empty grasp seemed to want to seize something, yet found nothing but air.

Behind him was the dark hostility from the past, following and pursuing the man all the way.

Before him was the final fate, the choice that would surely bring the light of destruction.

Trapped between those two predicaments, the man did not despair. He continuously struggled against them, which was why he had kept running and fighting all along.

Until now, the man who had never been troubled by love chose to stop for the sake of "love."

Then...

The man roared aloud.

The man fought with all his strength.

Then the pursuing light and darkness crashed into him, drowning the man who no longer fought for survival, but only to buy time.

Until even the final trace of the "happiness" that had once existed...

Was swallowed up and vanished.

"Ash!"

Hana jolted awake and threw off the blanket before her. Her back was drenched in sweat, and she greedily gasped for air like someone who had just been pulled from the water after drowning.

Her mind was a complete mess. Her heart held only an inexplicable panic and pain. This "dream" that had left her utterly disordered reminded her of the past. Tomorrow Energy, the power symbolizing hope for the future, had once given her similar prophetic dreams warning her of the future when her physical condition had still been good.

"But I haven't had one in a long time..."

"This was only a dream."