"I don't ask for much. Even if I have to be a disposable shield for you, that's fine!"
Rather than letting your precious Pretty Cure get hurt, it would be better if I got hurt instead!
"No!"
Yet Ash, as expected, rejected Mirror's little desire for self-sacrifice.
"You should know, at least somewhat, that the enemy's leader is deeply connected to me. So I really don't want to..."
Ash did not finish his sentence, but Mirror understood sadly.
"So to Ash, I really am just an outsider after all?"
Maybe you acted without thinking much at the time, but for me back then, you saved me from the despair of being completely abandoned by myself—with a kiss... What woman could ever forget that?
"Fine, I understand..."
Mirror, who had no intention of making a scene, merely sighed softly. She wanted to pretend she did not care, but she could not. A sad whisper, faint as a mosquito's buzz, escaped her lips.
"If I had met you three hundred years ago, how wonderful that would have been..."
The tears she quietly shed so he would not see still left patch after patch of stains on her pure white shrine maiden robes.
"That's enough."
At this point, he truly could not keep pretending not to notice.
"Ash, you?"
Her sincere embrace conveyed its warmth and the pounding heartbeat in her chest clearly to him.
"If I abandoned you here now, how would I be any different from that Blue God?"
Besides, hadn't you helped me twice at crucial moments? How could I possibly accept that without repaying you at all?
"Mirage Angel! Remember this: you are not some shield for atonement. You are a Pretty Cure, a companion who has fought alongside us!"
"Do you remember what I once told you? Only