Kamen Rider is playing the villain in Pretty Cure

"I was just... secretly drawing some boring things by myself. No, I didn't really want to... Ugh, Ugh... Hate it——!"

She felt uncomfortable, disgusted, and suffocated. She was clearly a victim who was bullied and had her power sealed, but she was being teased by the other party. The unspeakable grievance turned into straightforward emotions. Yayoi wanted to hold back, but she could no longer bear it. Transparent tears dripped from the girl's eyes.

"Hey, hey, hey, is this true?" Seeing the crystal tears sliding down Yayoi's chin, as if she was about to burst into tears at any second, Ash became a little flustered. "Are you really crying?"

No, I was just teasing you. I'm not serious about it. You're such a crybaby, aren't you?

"Okay, okay, I was wrong. Come on, I shouldn't have teased you." Ash had no choice but to sigh and raise his hands in surrender. Seeing Yayoi's aggrieved look and tears streaming down her face, he had no choice but to hand over the handkerchief that Goki had given him.

"You're really serious about your comics, right? They're not just some boring thing. Honestly, they're really well drawn. I mean it."

Ash's final words of agreement were like a switch, causing Yayoi to stop crying.

"Really, really?"

This person actually thinks my comics are good? Could it be that this is another prelude to deliberately making fun of me?

Yayoi, who didn't dare to refuse, carefully took the handkerchief. When she wiped away her tears, she found that the handkerchief was embroidered with a rather girlish sunflower pattern, which made Yayoi feel a little relieved.

"I am a liar only when I need to lie. The rest of the time I don't bother to tell lies that are too weak."

After making the other person cry, Ash's inexplicably strange remarks inexplicably hit Yayoi's funny spot, making her almost laugh out loud.

"Pfft, what is that? It makes no sense..."

What's going on with this person?

For the first time, Yayoi, who was arguing with Ash, vaguely realized that the man standing in front of her looked difficult to deal with.

This real-life "villain" seems quite different from the villains on TV who are either straightforwardly evil or mischievous villains.

They are all quite different.

Chapter 36: Dad is a Kamen Rider?

During the battle, no matter whether they were crying or shouting, Ash, as the enemy, was too lazy to pay attention.

But in daily life, making a girl cry casually...it's a bit embarrassing.

"Really? Even though I say I'm not a good person, I don't think I'm a bad person anymore."

Anyway, I've been cleared, right?

"Really, you're really not angry?" Yayoi asked cautiously, still worried. Seeing this, Ash had to shake his head.

Will Ash be angry?

No, of course he wouldn't be angry, because he was indeed hit by Fourze with a rocket switch. Although it was a bit embarrassing, it was something that actually happened after all. Why would he be angry?

"But you can draw Kamen Rider. Do you like heroes?"

"I like it, what's wrong?"

Ash smiled.

"I like it too. So if even I agree, then your drawing is pretty good, isn't it?" Ash clapped his hands and handed the picture book back to Yayoi, who hurriedly caught it. "Why don't you just stop being a Pretty Cure and become a manga artist?"

You should know that many of your predecessors just want to do their own thing and don't care about the identity of a hero. They envy your conditions.

"This has nothing to do with you..."

Holding the picture book, Yayoi pouted and tried to calm her dissatisfaction in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz, but she was also secretly happy that the other party praised her.

Ah, no, Yayoi, you can't be fooled by this guy's kindness! He's the bad guy who bullied you, the nasty villain Kamen Rider!

"But I didn't expect you to like heroes and such..."

It was rare for Ash to express such emotion. Ever since his true identity was revealed and he was criticized as being too childish, Ash rarely talked to others about his love for "Shining" and "Heroes". Now he was surprised and surprised to meet someone who shared the same interests in the world of Pretty Cure.

"What, what's wrong?" Thinking he was just like the other boys, laughing at her hobby, Yayoi pouted and hugged the picture book even tighter. "I just like comics and anime about heroes, is that okay?!"

"No, it's a great welcome if you can think of it that way!"

When I was little, I had no one around me to discuss things with. Today, I discovered that my friend is actually a woman! This is really rare. It's common to have bad friends, but it's rare to find brothers who share the same XP!

Ash's eyes began to sparkle with inexplicable happiness. The oath he had just reminded himself not to have too much contact with other Pretty Cure was thrown away by Ash in the face of this passion.

"Look, you like heroes, and I like heroes too. You like being Pretty Cure, and I like playing Pretty Cure too! We're so compatible, we could be half-brothers... ahem, siblings, really. Actually, we're probably just good friends, right?"

"Is that so... That's not right!" Yayoi, who had almost been tricked by Ash, glared at him with dark eyes and shook her head quickly. "I'm different from you. I like you because—" Yayoi almost shouted out what she wanted to say, but she got stuck in the middle of it, and the momentum she had initially built up slowly weakened.

I like heroes, although heroes are handsome...but there is more to it than that.

"I want to be... as brave as a hero."

"Really?" Ash nodded slightly, understanding something. "That's why you reacted so strongly when I sealed the Transformer."

However, I don't feel like I did anything wrong.

"But." Ash shook his head coldly in front of her. "You can't become the hero you want by fighting with only admiration. Courage alone won't make you—"

Yayoi clenched her back teeth.

Ash's words struck Yayoi's world like a thunderbolt, or rather, ignited something.

"That's not the case. Don't act like you're always right!"

You always act so high and mighty, and you always judge others as if you are right. What do you know?!

Ash's cold and negative attitude again, this time invading Yayoi's most important part, completely detonating her suppressed emotions. This time, what flashed in the crystal clear water was no longer grievance, but her dissatisfied anger.

This was the first time she dared to speak to Ash in such a loud voice.

"I didn't like Ash from the beginning! Actually-actually..."

"Actually, when I was very young, the person who liked special effects heroes was my father."

With red eyes, Yayoi kept blinking, trying to hold back her tears. In order to prove the purity of her feelings, the girl told Ash the private things that she would never tell him.

"He would take me to watch his favorite special effects films. At that time, I had no interest in handsome heroes or heroes who defeated monsters. I thought monsters were scary, and the sight of them getting hurt in battle was terrifying..."

At that time, what I liked was not the hero, but the handsome and gentle father who accompanied me.

Until I was five years old, my father suddenly disappeared from my life.

"At that time, I kept asking my mother, 'Mom, mom, where is Dad?' Why didn't he come home to hug me? Doesn't he like Yayoi anymore?" Listening to Yayoi's voice, which was distorted and unclear due to crying but full of sincerity, even Ash quietly became a listener.

"Then, my mom, back then, showed me a Kamen Rider doll just like the one on TV." At this point, the girl's tearful expression gave way to a nostalgic smile. "Mom said, 'Actually, Dad is Kamen Rider, the righteous Kamen Rider who protects children.' That's why he's on TV every week, defeating monsters for the kids who love him... That's why he's always so busy and can't be with me."

At that time, I really believed it.

"So every week I go in front of the TV to cheer for Kamen Rider and my dad."

When she lost her father and had only her mother to depend on, she felt lonely without someone by her side. It was from then on that Yayoi began to yearn for a hero, or in other words, she longed for a father.

Yayoi, who believed that her father was Kamen Rider, gradually fell in love with the hero who fought for justice.

"I've always believed... I believe that if Dad doesn't have time to protect the other children, then if I just behave myself and cheer him on, he'll definitely defeat the enemy sooner and be able to return home sooner."

How I wish the hero could save me like he saves others in cartoons, and I hope that Kamen Rider can take off his helmet and touch my head like he used to.

"Until the show finished airing that year, I gradually grew up and realized that there were no Kamen Riders in this world, and my father was just an ordinary person who went to heaven, not a hero."

That was just a lie my mother made up to keep me from being too sad.

"Kamen Rider and Hero both exist," Ash added instinctively. "I'm Kamen Rider, and the Hero is Pretty Cure."

"I know, I know!"

So when I saw you, the real Kamen Rider, appear, I even thought...

But why, the Kamen Rider who really appeared in this world... looks like this!

Even though her eyes were cute and not intimidating at all, Yayoi still glared at Ash angrily.

"I hate you!" Yayoi, holding the picture book, pushed forward with both hands, causing Ash to stagger and retreat away from her. Sparkling tears fell in the air in front of Ash.

I hate you!

I hate you for destroying my reality and my fantasy!

Hate, hate, hate! I hate you, this self-righteous bad Kamen Rider, even more than I hate the people in Tragedy Kingdom!

"People like you, please don't destroy the Kamen Rider (Dad) in my heart!"

Looking at Yayoi's tearful back as she left, Ash clenched his hands tightly, then let go weakly.

Chapter 37: The Secret Pass of the Tragic Kingdom

An emotion similar to "sadness" rose from the bottom of Ash's heart, and then slowly subsided.

"System, did I mess up again this time?"

I am a loner because I don't fit in with the environment around me, so I like the heroes who always shine, even without any special reason.

This woman also fell in love with the hero because of loneliness, but her loneliness was caused by other reasons. Not to mention that his actions were equivalent to dragging out her way of survival deep in her heart, stepping on it twice, and then standing on the moral high ground with his hands on his hips and laughing at her.

Try to put yourself in the other person's shoes and think about it... Tsk, compassion for others is really not suitable for me!

If it were his old self, he would certainly have said something cold-blooded like "I don't care." After all, what did other people's affairs have to do with him? He simply didn't bother to pay attention to the ignorant vulgar people.

But now, Ash, who has walked this far, is no longer the person who is so indifferent and empty about such things.

Even though there is a "dark ring" in the chest of "Ashes" that absorbs all light sources, it is almost filled with something warmer than light.

"Ash, whether it's light or darkness, you always have the power to choose." The system screen popped up in front of Ash, and the italicized text appeared on it. "So, in the same way, rather than saying good or bad, the power to decide the right or wrong path of a matter comes from your own decision."

"If even you say so." Feeling extremely bad, Ash sighed.

"I did something wrong to others."

I thought about how I had secretly vowed in my heart not long ago, saying things like "I don't want to care about their affairs!" and "I don't want to be a guide for others' hearts anymore", and now I might be slapping myself in the face.

"No, this is different."

Ash immediately found an excuse for himself.

"I'm just making up for what I did wrong."

The memories in his mind, though inevitably flawed by the echoes of the purifying darkness, were no longer blurry.

Those who have been with Ash always say that it is his magic that has changed them.

"But the principle is the same." The metal gauntlet on his right hand grasped the hilt of the holy sword at his waist, making a crisp metallic sound. "In terms of the fact that you have changed yourself, you have also changed me."

If I were so arrogant as to not want to admit something of this magnitude, my former friends would probably look down on me.

Without hesitation, Ash followed the girl's disappearing figure.

Kise Yayoi ran aimlessly until she was completely out of strength, then she sat down on the ground and stopped. As she collapsed from exhaustion, several textbooks popped out from behind her.

"Ah, my schoolbag!"

This time they encountered the clown monster just when they were leaving school. They had not had time to put down their schoolbags when they encountered it. So it was not until now that Yayoi, who was sitting on the ground, realized that she had forgotten to zip up her small schoolbag with Ultraman painted on it.

She quickly opened her schoolbag to check, and after making sure that she had not dropped anything, Yayoi breathed a sigh of relief and put the picture book in her hand into the schoolbag.

Feeling a little distressed, she placed the slightly bent picture book next to other books. Only then did she realize that the most important exercise book was not in her schoolbag!

"Eh, how could that be? Did I lose it when I ran into him? Or did I forget it at school—ah."

When Yayoi thought about the teacher's disappointed expression when she failed to hand in the homework tomorrow, she became panicked again. Just when she didn't know what to do, the girl remembered the whole story.

Oh, how could I have been so flustered that I forgot about this? The teacher assigned us a practical assignment today, so I didn't bring my workbook.

This time I was really careless. I was so angry with that man that I actually forgot about this matter. Let me look at my notebook. What is the practical task I plan to do today?

"Today's homework is for us, the adolescents, to re-understand the meaning of our own names."

In other words, you have to go and ask your parents how your name came about and what its meaning is...

Yayoi quietly put the notebook back into her bag. With her head down, she remained silent. After a while, she made a soft sound.

"It's really, what a coincidence."

The name "Yayoi" in Kise Yayoi's name was given to me by my father.

I clearly don't want to discuss this kind of thing right now...

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