Kamen Rider is playing the villain in Pretty Cure

"Um..." Weiyi, who was still a little concerned about the length of her skirt, said cautiously while tugging at the hem of her skirt. "Ms. Nan must be very afraid of ghosts."

"ghost?"

After hearing Wei's answer, Ash, who had accidentally set down his handheld game console after accidentally selecting the Be screen, curiously wanted to confirm with her. "So, Konan's fear is actually something like ghosts?"

Ghosts, spirits, undead, whatever you want to call them, they are obviously things that only appear after death.

"Is this what she's afraid of?"

"Yes... yes."

By the way, am I betraying my friend's weakness to Ash? Is that aiding the enemy? Although she felt a little uneasy, facing Ash's active questioning, Wei couldn't help but tell the truth.

"Ash... King, Your Majesty, are you going to use this to embarrass her?"

"Ha, who do you take me for?" Ash glanced at the black-haired girl, who was trying to hide her embarrassment by pushing up her glasses, feeling somewhat annoyed. "Do you think I'm someone who knows someone's weaknesses and then exploits them to your advantage?"

It's not like I haven't thought about it...mainly because it does sound like something Ash would do.

"Hmph, if I truly wanted to defeat someone, I'd only do it head-on, until they were convinced!" The flames that had inexplicably ignited within his palm were extinguished by his clenched hand. "Xiao Wei, your worry about your friend is unnecessary. As for Nan, not only will I not harm her, on the contrary, I'll help her correct this weakness!"

You are the incomparably shining Pretty Cure, who will one day become the queen of my kingdom of darkness. How can you be afraid of a mere ghost after death?

As a king or queen, you must be prepared to shoulder the expectations of countless people and move forward with your life. How can you be afraid simply because of physical fear?

"Um, can I ask you something?" The girl, still shyly covering her skirt with one hand and raising her other hand to ask a question, timidly asked, "If I want to help Minami-san, how do I do it specifically?"

"Nonsense, fighting fire with fire, of course!" Ash said, a nostalgic look in his eyes. "Just like that Earth-set cartoon I watched recently, where the Getter Robo protagonist Musashi is afraid of reptilian enemies, so he locks himself in a room full of lizards to train against them with fire. Isn't that pretty exciting?!"

"I knew it..." The girl who was silently mourning for Nan in her heart suddenly felt a strong gaze directed towards her again. When she looked up, she saw Ash looking straight at her... or rather, looking straight at her skirt.

"Ah!" Wei, clutching her skirt, stepped back a bit, which only made Ash even more upset. "Hey, Wei, what do you mean by that? You're just a maid, are you dissatisfied with my clothing design?"

"But... Your Majesty!" The girl, finally unable to contain herself, covered her skirt with a blushing face while mustering up the courage to protest, "Maid outfits are indeed very cute, but this skirt...isn't it a little too short?"

If it can only barely cover the thighs, wouldn't it be easy to expose yourself when cleaning?

"It seems you, Wei You, are quite understanding. That's right, I want to see that kind of scenery!"

Bad! What’s even worse is that they actually admitted it!

"Just what you mentioned, Wei! Can I take a look at what's underneath your skirt right now?"

"Of course not!" Even if you force me, I can't do anything! I can't do anything...

"Really? Never mind then."

Give up so quickly!

Seeing him turn around immediately and plan to plot against Nan, Nanase Wei, who was originally afraid and ashamed, didn't know what to say to him.

At the beginning, he said that he wanted Precure to be the queen and his wife.

Although I was with Haruka and the others at that time, I was actually excluded.

"call..."

Looking at the man's delicate profile, the girl suddenly felt like sighing for some reason.

Chapter 44: Nan's Psychological Shadow

"Am I thinking too much?"

Yes, Ash is the terrible yet powerful king from another world, and Xiaoyao and the others are the chosen Pretty Cure. If I think too much, it will be bad for me.

Besides, I was kidnapped to become an apprentice maid in the Kingdom of Night. Why would I want to be treated worse? Isn't this just asking for trouble?

"But, in TV dramas, the heroines usually start from the bottom and work their way up to the higher-ranking male protagonists..."

Amidst subtle cries of pain, the girl gave herself two small knocks on the head. "Wake up, Wei! This isn't the set of an urban romance novel, and I'm not the heroine. You've been copying fairy tales from picture books too much!"

Besides, Ash as a king is obviously not like the male protagonist. Instead, he gives people the feeling of the evil devil who is the final villain.

"..."

"Lord Ash?" He came to his senses and was staring at her again. The girl, who was careful to use honorifics, was wondering in her heart, "What's going on this time?", when she saw Ash take out a familiar object and put it in front of her.

"Do you recognize this?"

“This is——!”

Nanase Yui was immediately excited when she saw the small princess dress accessory in Ash's hand. How could she not recognize it? It was the "dress-up key" that Puff and Aloma had asked Xiaoyao and the others to collect! Collecting all of them is essential for a Pretty Cure to evolve into a "Grand Princess" who can save the world!

But why is it in Ash's hands? !

"Well, judging by your looks, I think we know each other."

Before Yui could even try to reach out, Ash withdrew the hand holding the costume key. "This thing looks a lot like the key they use to transform. So, I see there's a connection, right?"

Now we have the bait too.

"Are you asking why this thing is in my hands? Well... originally it was indeed something belonging to other elves, but later I became their king, so it naturally became mine!"

After all, I did take them in as my citizens, and in return they insisted on giving me this "ancestral" thing. At first I thought it was just a small toy, but now I realize it's really not simple.

"Could it be that the world of elves is not just the Kingdom of Hope, but also contains many other countries?"

"Who knows, maybe there are more Pretty Cure characters than just these three." Ash, pretending to be nonchalant, but feeling strangely anxious, quickly turned the topic back to Yui. "As for Nan's matter, Yui~ I'll have to ask for your cooperation from now on."

"Me? How could I possibly help persecute Minami-san?"

"Oh, what kind of persecution is this?"

Although the girl kept shaking her head to express her refusal, for some reason Ash's gentle and persuasive "magic voice" still lingered in her ears.

"If you think about it this way, we are helping her overcome her psychological difficulties!"

Don't think too much of me.

"I'm helping her!"

This time I'm serious!

------

"Why do you keep chasing me?

When Kaito Minami was little, perhaps even in preschool, she wasn't the "school princess" she is today. Back then, she was just a little girl who loved playing with dolls with her friends, passionately discussing cartoons, and watching magical girl anime every Sunday.

It was precisely because of this that she, with her pure innocence, could never forget the scene she saw on television that day. When she saw her favorite blue magical girl being devoured by a ghost, then being possessed and used by the spirit, uttering the famous line "I'm such an idiot," and then fighting with her companions, the girl's heart was deeply scarred, along with her tears.

So if it's clearly for children...why let children see such scary and terrible things!

Another portal quietly appeared under the girl's feet. She stepped into it carelessly and fell out again. She looked back hurriedly and found that the ghost fires that had been chasing her had also disappeared.

"Finally..." The girl patted her heart that was about to jump out of her throat, and her face turned red when she thought of the extremely embarrassing scene after she was scared before.

"Is this the woods near Noble College?" As the student council president, she recognized the changed surroundings immediately. "So, I'm back from the Kingdom of Night?"

I was a little worried about how I'd get out if I'd been so impulsive, but now I'm back. It was so quick, though, I didn't even get to see him... I feel so bad.

However, this trip to the Kingdom of Night was worthwhile. She had come to understand that the elves, as citizens, still respected their king even in private. The respect she had seen that day was by no means false.

But the thought of another incident made her face turn pale. It was clearly called the "Kingdom of Night," and the kingdom itself was quite dark, but how come even the citizens were ghosts? This wasn't the Kingdom of Night, it was the kingdom of the dead!

"So, Ash is a tyrant who, despite being loved and respected by his people, continues to command their souls even after they die...?"

No, no! The atmosphere I felt from them before was clearly not like this, how come it has become even worse?

Even though it was clearly evident regarding that person, the girl still felt like she had only seen the tip of the iceberg.

"Buli, buli~"

The sudden flash of light from the dressing key in his arms woke Nan from his doubts. Following the special sensation corresponding to the flash, the girl who had been following him all the way suddenly widened her eyes when she saw the small key floating in the air not far away.

"Why did the costume key suddenly appear here...Ah, wait!"

Seeing the other costume key start to fly away, the girl hurriedly followed it and jogged all the way, naturally falling into the "trap" prepared by Ash.

"..."

Looking up at the giant blue dragon in front of her that was holding the key, the girl nervously swallowed the saliva on her tongue.

"[Chosen by the hopes of the world, Pretty Cure!]"

"[You must prove your [Shine] to me! Prove that you are worthy of this key!]"

"shine?"

For some reason, the girl suddenly thought of another guy who always said the same thing.

The girl frowned, realizing that things were not simple.

Chapter 45: Her True Powerful Heart

"[Kaito Minami...Pretty Cure, if you wish to prove that you are worthy of this costume key and the chosen one,]"

While remotely controlling the projection of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and holding the key in his hand, Ash lowered his voice and made sounds in coordination with the dragon's posture as a voice actor.

"[Then prove to me, prove that your [Shining] exists!]"

What is this proving? I can’t understand the nonsense this dragon is talking about.

Although she had no idea what was going on and why there was such a huge dragon coiled near her school, the girl was sure that the key was indeed real, so she had no choice but to continue asking about the key.

"I don't understand what qualifications are, nor do I know what it means to be chosen, but I am indeed a Pretty Cure!"

In order to help Xiaoyao who was desperately trying to be my friend, and to protect the students whose dreams were taken away by the Castle of Despair, I was indeed chosen by the key to become a Precure with such feelings.

"So, what exactly do you want me to do with the proof you're referring to?"

"[You must prove that you have a strong heart that won't lose to others!]"

So the question is how can I prove it?

"Whaaaaaah——!!"

The sudden scream pulled Nan out of her thoughts. When she followed the direction of the sound and saw the actual scene, her face turned pale immediately.

"Why, why are there ghosts on Earth?"

On a nearby lawn, several will-o'-the-wisp ghosts, grinning wickedly, stretched their floating mouths to their nonexistent ears, emitting eerie laughter as they circled around the center. For Nan, who was terrified of ghosts, this psychologically disturbing scene was even more terrifying than ten or a hundred Castles of Despair!

Ghosts don't just exist in the Kingdom of Night. It turns out that ghosts also exist on Earth... That's not right. It's broad daylight now. Why would ghosts be wandering around in broad daylight? This doesn't fit the setting at all!

But what was that scream just now?

“Aa ...

As if to remind Nan of her confusion, the scream came out from the encirclement of the "ghosts" again, and the girl caught a glimpse of them during the gap between their circles and her eyes widened when she saw the truth!

"Yui-kun?!"

That’s right, Nan was very sure that he was not seeing things. The girl with glasses whose clothes looked a little messy was the victim who was sitting on the ground surrounded by ghosts. Her face was completely stiff with fear, and it was obvious that she was extremely scared.

"Why is Wei here?"

She accidentally recalled the magical girl who was eaten and possessed by ghosts in the cartoons she saw when she was a child. When she thought of such a psychologically traumatic scene, the girl's face turned even paler and she immediately prepared to call for help. She was so afraid of ghosts that her hands would tremble uncontrollably just by seeing them, but Haruka and Kirara could come to help!

"Oops, I forgot my phone!"

What should I do? What should I do?! She's so scared... and I can only watch?!

"Wei, what do you say about us spinning in the sky at this speed?"

"I'm sorry, Wei, we still need you to cooperate with us. But this is the king's mission after all, so let's work together to complete it!"

"Should we make some more scary noises?"

At this time, Nanase Yui, who was sitting sideways on the ground and playing the role of the "victim", looked at the "ghosts" in the sky who were whispering to her, and didn't know what to say for a moment.

Generally speaking, ghosts don't talk to their victims, right?

But just like himself, they were also invited by Ash to play the role of "bad guys" to provoke Minami, but unlike himself, they enjoyed it.

"Why would I agree to this..."

What a willful king!

"Wei, you need to act a little more intense and a little more scared at this time, right?"