Kamen Rider is playing the villain in Pretty Cure

"You're still saying things like that now. A child wouldn't understand... Now let's leave it to A. He can't exist in this era."

"No! Master Ash, he is our-"

"Bad... Look..." Ash's voice made them look at the other him. "The real Ash will be back soon. In just a few moments you will be able to see the person you want to see..."

"Really?"

Walking past the black girl who had made way, Ayumi couldn't help but look back again.

“How pitiful…”

"Yeah, that's really sad."

For them, whose birth methods and thought processes are incredibly simple, the only person she knows is Ash, right? And now she's being used by others...

I thought the same thing about you at the beginning. I would take advantage of anything that can be used, even if you say you are taking the initiative... hehe.

In the end, I was the one who was being helped by you, and I couldn't help but want to continue supporting you. So, as for the "rational" part of me, I am really useless.

"I'm sorry, Ayumi..."

It’s too short, the time I have with you is really too little, so short that no matter our true feelings, they are not enough to bloom, and the flower of my heart is still so green.

"What did you say suddenly?" I don't remember you having to apologize to me for anything. Didn't we agree that I would help you voluntarily?

Ash didn't answer, just chuckled twice.

"As long as they have the heart... anyone can become a Pretty Cure?"

You are different from me who was only accompanied by loneliness at the beginning. You said that you were lonely before, but at least you made good friends and received help later. It was these experiences that made you a good child who is willing to lend a helping hand to strangers.

You were obviously awkward and had some thoughts during our terrible first meeting, but in the end you still chose to help me when I was all alone. It makes me so happy when I think about it now.

I have always hated being alone.

"What a wonderful world...A."

After going through the bad ending of the beautiful girl, Regina and Xiao An, the heartbroken and sad Lei, and the speechless and trembling Miyuki, the two finally came to love and another self.

"Are you here to...say goodbye to him?"

"Probably... something like this, cough cough!"

Children are not afraid of death, they are afraid of being forgotten before they care about it.

Adults, it's just the opposite.

"How embarrassing! In the end, you still lost to Love and Peace, Mr. Villain...?"

You lost to your own weakness.

"You...are here..."

Seeing his other self, the man let go of Mana's hand and responded to him with the last bit of strength he had.

"It's better not to do this, right?" Lei, guessing he might want to end things with her, felt sympathetic. "This would be too much for you..."

"No, Lei..." Ash shook his head. "This is something only he and I can do."

No one's obstruction is of any use.

"I won't give up..." The man released Mana's hand and pointed at the boy before him, still filled with resentment. "You don't think you've won... Even in the end... all our efforts were in vain... That's the ultimate irony."

As long as I still have strength... I can continue to fight—

"I lost, we all lost..." Ash admitted with a nod, walking slowly past the falling ashes. "In the end, the winners were them and him."

The boy turned around and looked at the Pretty Cures, all of whom had different expressions, but no one was happy. The sadness on their faces was so similar to their last farewell in the past.

What they longed for was Ash's presence, so they had to call me out.

"?"

The girl who was about to take a step further stopped where she was. When she turned around, she saw the pair of hands holding her tightly.

"Ayumi."

"I told you, A?" the girl forced a smile at him. "I'll help you until the very end... I also want to hold your hand."

You are... my most important friend! Aren't you?

The girl's clenched hands were covered by the boy's other hand. Just as Ayumi was feeling surprised, she felt something cold sliding into her palm.

"Eh?"

Ayumi instinctively lowered her head and opened it to take a look, and was stunned. Lying quietly in the palm of her hand was the strange coin, one bright and one dark, that she had picked up and returned to him.

The coin that he once inexplicably said was a gift from him, this coin with a horizontal crack in the center was now handed to him by him.

"Even though we've only been together for a short time, I guess we can't really be considered friends..."

"But this is my treasure. It would be a shame to lose it... Please keep it for me."

A smiled and patted Ayumi's hand with his other hand, making her step back.

The hand you should hold is no longer mine.

“A——!”

The girl exclaimed.

"Ash!"

Someone noticed the unusual movement here and started running.

And Ash had already stood in front of another "Ash".

"I once said we were not the same....but I was wrong."

“I don’t need…”

I understand, and you understand too. We understand everything about each other, even if you are just desire and I am just emptiness.

You and I, we are one, no different.

You lost me, and I lost you. Now, we are connected by this same feeling.

“Now…”

Ash clasped his hands together and raised them above his head, then smashed down when Ayumi was only one step away from him.

Now you won't feel lonely anymore.

“We are one.”

When Ash's fist smashed hard into Ash's chest.

The core coin of light and darkness also broke into two halves in the girl's palm.

----

"[So, you really want to come with me? Help me collect Dark Echoes?]"

Looking at the system panel in front of him that he had designed for Him, the young man Ash said excitedly.

"Yes, take me there!"

I can actually see heroes that have never existed in reality. I don’t want to stay in this broken world that is only wrapped in desire and has no shining human heart for even a second!

He couldn't wait to start traveling with the first "friend" he met.

"[Even though... you might never come back?]"

A portal formed by overlapping shadows appeared in front of the young man.

"Ah, anyway, this world has absolutely no room for me, whether in terms of wisdom or personality."

In the end, either I will destroy him or she will destroy me. In that case—just at this moment, the boy suddenly remembered something and looked towards the other room.

....Forget it. Ever since I gave up my genius performance, he has been talking to me less and less. He would be happy if I disappeared, right?

"[Enter this door and you will be rewarded with a story like no other.]"

"[But as a price, you will also lose something important——]"

"I understand! Anyway, whether it's the body, the memories, or the life, it doesn't matter, I'll give it to you!"

The young man, with only wonderful things in his eyes, stepped into the door without hesitation.

The boy ran, constantly traveling with the system through various worlds, such as Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Ultraman, or other worlds with heroes - which greatly satisfied the heart of this hero-obsessed boy, as this was exactly what he wanted.

But as the journey went on, his once fearless smile was gradually replaced by an extremely empty joy... He even forgot the original reason and lost sight of the meaning of "Dark Echoes" - the resentment and dark cause and effect carried by countless heroes. When these "misfortunes" were transferred and gathered on Ash, the sad heroes could also gain "happiness."

Under the endless darkness washing over him again and again, even with the "help" of the system to cleanse his memory every time, the boy who once loved heroes the most still lost the "eyes" to pursue the light.

Fighting - fighting, only fighting is the purest, fighting with darkness, fighting with light, fighting with friends, fighting with enemies, so only the memory of fighting remains.

So he became "bad", becoming more and more willful until he was stopped and then remembered again, again and again, without getting tired of it.

With only the "system" by his side, the boy has become a man. Even the companions with whom he had formed a deep bond in the past may never be seen again. Alone, he feels increasingly empty and has only learned to make loneliness his companion, a kind of infinite confusion...

"Hi, Ash."

"So here I am."

A embraced the boy who could only move forward alone from the surrounding dark echoing sea.

"We are not alone."

Countless hands reached out from the dark echoes: armored hands, the hands of giants of light, hands leaning on each other—and many more hands. Among these hands were those familiar to him, and those unfamiliar. As countless stories have written, it was the hands of people who lifted a world gradually sinking into darkness back into the bright sky.

It was these people's hands that pushed Ash out from the darkness.

"Everyone will be a hero, and all heroes will save us."

The girls then grabbed Ash's hands from above and pulled him up from the darkness.

"Look up."

Above the dark echo.

"Everyone is waiting for you."

It is the boundless bright morning sunshine.

"Anyone who has that heart can become a Pretty Cure."

But we still have to fight, right? After all, the issue of the assassin's materials hasn't been resolved yet.

"Anyone who has the heart can be a hero."

After all, that’s how nature has always been.

"A world where everyone shines like a star."

I like this too.

"so good."

In the pitch-black darkness that was emitting a thousand-foot-long light, a man with black hair and black eyes stood there.

There are no two beings of the same origin fighting each other here, and there are no traces of any previous existence here, as if everything is just an illusion.

There is only the person they have been waiting for.

The man opened his eyes.

"Ash."

"what."

Ash responded.

"I am back."

Chapter 87 The Returning Man

There was no blood, no traces of previous battles, only the man who haunted their dreams.

"Ash."

With his back to the girls who were gradually opening their eyes, the man in the black windbreaker slowly turned around, allowing them to see the face and smile that had appeared countless times in their dreams not long ago.

"My name is Ash."