Chapter 8: Ash's Twisted Logic
"Wuwawawawa——"
The battle between Kamen Rider and Precure began with a violent explosion.
Almost at the moment when the girls completed their transformations, Dragclaw continuously spewed out fireballs, blasting the Precure out of the warehouse.
The girls crashed hard onto the ground, groaning in pain as they rubbed the spots where they landed. Ryuga's eyes glowed from beneath the grille of his mask as he looked into the distance. It was as if two crimson flames appeared from the other end of the smoky warehouse. He stared at them through the smoke, trailing a stream of red and approached step by step.
"Diamond, Rosetta, we have no choice but to fight back!" Makoto, who stood up first, gritted her teeth through the pain and turned into a purple streak, charging towards Ash.
"Then let me, Cure Diamond, calm down his mind!"
The three girls rushed forward together, while Airemained seated because she still didn't want to attack Ash, whom she considered a friend.
They had held hands before and agreed to be friends!
The others felt similar emotions, but they also had no intention of standing here and letting the other side attack.
Precure were indeed embodiments of kindness, but kindness also has its limits!
"Close combat, huh?"
Ash casually threw away Dragclaw and met the fierce attacks of the three Precure with clenched fists.
Although they were classified as magical girls, Precure, in general, rarely used magic in battle, except for the three of them. They excelled more in powerful physical attacks and then purified their enemies with light beams containing pure divine energy.
Therefore, basically every Precure member welcomed combat, or rather, combat was usually when these girls truly showed their prowess.
"This is really something...."
After deflecting Rikka's fist, which was aimed at her face, with a single blow, Ash sent the girl flying several meters away. The sound of wind behind her back informed him of the situation without needing to turn his head. He lowered his head and turned around, using the circular interface on his shoulder as a weapon, and slammed into Makoto. She crashed into Ash, then was caught and thrown to the ground, leaving a human-shaped pit.
Impressive, but still not my match.
"Ouch!" The idol girl trapped in the ground let out a twisted cry of pain.
"Damn it, it feels like he can see right through me——"
After a brief exchange, the girls realized that their strength was not inferior to their opponent's. However, this battle was completely different from fighting Jikochū. Instead, their larger numbers allowed the enemy to have full control and suppress them.
The opponent seemed to have eyes all over their body, capable of calmly responding to attacks from any direction.
"It's really embarrassing. The difference in experience is too great," Ash revealed the reason. After all, he didn't know how many times he had fought for his life, while the few girls in front of him calculated based on his initial witness accounts from the search engine. They had just become Precure less than a month ago.
If he still didn't have an advantage under such a gap, he might as well return the Card Deck to Kanzaki Shirō and go home to get some rest.
Makoto, who was lying on the ground, coughed violently, breathing in the fresh air. She stared with wide eyes as Ash's palm grew larger in front of her, unable to respond.
Seeing Makoto about to suffer a "fatal blow," she instinctively closed her eyes. However, the expected attack was delayed, and when the girl opened her eyes, a bright yellow figure stood in front of her.
"Rosetta Wall!"
Alice released a light green four-leaf clover barrier, blocking Ash's further attack. Then, she pushed her palms forward, forcefully pushing Ash back. Surprisingly, she used her shield-like hands to launch a counterattack.
"This stance is..." Ash blurted out, recognizing the familiar posture. "Karate? If it can be practically applied, it seems it's not just for show."
"My Aikido and swordsmanship are also at a master level," Alice said with a flawless stance that no one could criticize. She took a deep breath, her eyes serious and solemn. "Ash-san, if you don't stop, we'll have to make you stop like this."
Knowing that their current level of attack couldn't truly defeat the opponent, Alice made up her mind to entangle him, giving the others more room to counterattack.
"Mana, stop daydreaming!" Fighting Ash was harder than fighting the Jikochū. Rikka glared at Ai, who was still dazed. "Why are you just standing there?"
Ai, after being reminded, raised her head and vigorously slapped her face to snap out of it.
"Sorry, Rikka is right. We have to make Ash-san stop now!"
Following Alice, who charged ahead, the Precure launched their counterattack.
"Is that so? Then let me try stopping," Ash said in the face of the girls' united attack. He became serious, adopting a strange posture, his fingers pinching like claws. One hand raised high, while the other hand lowered to his waist, as if imitating a wild beast deep in the mountains.
Ash's seriousness instantly made the Precure feel ten times, or even nine times, the pressure!
"Twinkle Diamond!" Seizing the opportunity while Alice engaged him, Rikka pointed her finger at Ash and released numerous light blue diamonds. Once they hit, they could immobilize the opponent. But that was only possible because Ash used Alice as a stepping stone half a second before being hit. Like a soaring eagle, he evaded the attack by propelling himself off her arm.
Holding his palm hidden in his embrace, he flexed and extended it like a claw, swiftly pushing it out diagonally, sending Ai, who was preparing to pursue him in mid-air, flying.
With consecutive backward steps, he evaded Alice's sweaty attacks. With a step forward, he used force starting from his ankles, his knee, hip, and shoulder slightly shifting, crashing into Makoto's embrace. The poor girl's finishing move was only halfway recited before she was thrown out like a broken branch by immense force.
Gritting their teeth and enduring the pain, the fierce attacks continued to rain down on Ash. However, the girls' expressions became increasingly serious.
In a typical battle with Jikochū, being struck like this would result in being knocked over and purified. However, Ash was holding his ground against them, and even... gaining the upper hand?
"Is this martial arts?!"
"Confrontation Beast Fist, pleased to meet you."
Although Ash had joined a martial arts organization called the "Confrontation Beast Hall," he couldn't harness the unique energy called "Rinki" from that world. However, he had learned a lot about the essence of Confrontation Beast Fist from the organization's master, Rio.
"So, I consider myself a practitioner of the Beast Fist as well."
The situation of four against one seemed unfavorable, but in reality, the advantage was leaning towards Ash. He even had the leisure to engage in a conversation with Alice, although no one else understood what he was saying.
"I think I've pretty much figured it out."
Leaving the chaotic center of the battle with several jumps, while the girls caught their breath and regained their strength, Ash positioned himself behind them and inserted a card into the Visor.
After several exchanges, he had almost grasped the power of the Precure. Upon transforming, he possessed a formidable physique that even the physical-enhancing Rider like Kuuga and Agito would envy. The complete protection of his battle suit prevented any injuries until his power was completely exhausted. His techniques were powerful enough to defeat even executive-class monsters. In terms of strength, his base form surpassed the transitional enhanced stage and even the final stage.
However, he hadn't fully unleashed that power. When fighting alongside them, he could feel that despite their words, these girls were instinctively holding back their strength. He was doing the same in order to effortlessly contend with them.
If you were to ask why, it was probably because he was human.
No matter what power he possessed after transforming, wasn't he still just a little girl at heart? That's what he couldn't help but think.
Well then, let me show them the consequences of going easy on me. It's about time to end this.
With the girls behind him, he extended three fingers without facing them.
"Three moves, and you're done."
"You're... you're so arrogant!" Overwhelmed by the humiliation of being completely underestimated, Makoto Kenzaki, the girl from another world, trembled all over. Unable to control her emotions, she called out to her partner and rushed toward Ash, about to activate her skill.
"Flash! Holy Sw—"
[Advent]
Ash was one step ahead, pulling up the Visor’s handguard , causing Makoto to lose grip of her Lovely Commune due to the sudden intense shaking.
Then, a horrifying scene unfolded before everyone's eyes.
A dragon, a dragon clad in armor, completely covered in pitch-black scales. It was Ryuga's contracted creature, an Eastern dragon with eyes burning with flames, bursting out from directly below where Makoto stood. Caught off guard, Makoto was bitten and pulled away by the dragon, like a hammer, crashing into the beams of nearby abandoned buildings, breaking one after another as they went down.
"Makoto!" Dabyi, who had returned to her elf form and the other girls, shouted in shock at the name of their friend. They watched as the dragon hammered Makoto, who was still caught in its mouth, against the beams of the nearby dilapidated structure, shattering them one by one as they descended.
The girl's originally high-pitched scream gradually turned into a moan until Dragblacker stopped, and Kenzaki Makoto, who was hanging on its sharp teeth with a dirty face, had already passed out after being released from her transformation.
Ash secretly warned Dragblacker through a contract card, dispelling its intention to swallow the girl in its mouth. In the slightly displeased roar of the dragon, Ash raised his right hand with three fingers raised.
"One," Ash pressed down a finger.
"Makoto-chan! Please stop!"
"Ash-san, you're also human, right? It's the selfish organization that wants to take away the existence of love, isn't it?"
"It's really strange for us to be fighting here like this!"
[Accel Vent]
Before Ai could finish expressing her heartfelt words, Alice and Rikka, who were originally standing beside her, disappeared. The only things she could sense were the swift wind brushing past her and the deafening engine roar, accompanied by brief cries hidden beneath the roar.
By the time she regained her senses, a massive explosion had already erupted behind the girl.
This card, which originally did not belong to Ryuga's deck, was a system reward he obtained by absorbing the dark echoes collected in this world. It was worth 2500 AP and was a special card that allowed for instantaneous super-accelerated attacks. In his accelerated state, he didn't even need a special attack against the tremendous acceleration force. He simply swung his arms to the left and right, crashing into the chests of the two girls without hesitation.
The impact brought them several hundred meters away, and the girls were ruthlessly smashed into three walls behind them. The tremendous force and the unprepared collision left the two girls in a sorry state, with shattered spirits and unbearable pain, feeling as if the air in their lungs was being squeezed out. The instinctive reaction of the girls was to stick out their tongues to catch their breath, but Ash didn't let this moment pass. He raised his hands and delivered a strong chop to the soft abdomen of one of the girls.
As the smoke cleared, the two transformed girls had fallen at the rider's feet.
Although the bodies of Precure were capable of withstanding such attacks, the girls' spirits had reached their limit even before that, unable to endure the excruciating pain, causing them to lose their transformation.
This was also the method Ash determined to be the safest way to defeat them after observing their behavior.
"Alice!" "Rikka!" Their two spirits also returned to their original forms, tearfully trying to awaken their fallen partners.
"Two," Ash pressed down his second finger.
"What's wrong? Are legendary people like you also shedding tears?"
He turned to look at the stunned and incredulous Ai.
"Don't you want to fight?"
"We... We never wanted to fight you in the first place!"
Watching their fallen comrades before them, witnessing this unbelievable scene, Ai couldn't hold back her frustration and shouted at Ash.
"In that case, let me finish you off."
However, it was as if he was mocking her. The only response she received was that single sentence.
"For me, I cannot survive without fighting. If you don't want to fight, then don't transform in the first place."
"You're completely wrong!" Ai closed her eyes in pain, her denied emotions turning into tears streaming down her cheeks.
"What you're saying is so strange!"
"I just... I just wanted to stand side by side with Ash-san, to protect everyone and strive together for the beauty of this world!"
"Cure Heart, are you serious about what you just said?"
Hearing Ash's abrupt question, Ai responded with confusion. She didn't understand what Ash meant.
"A person is born into the world without their own will, goes to school to learn knowledge that they may not even find useful, works diligently as they grow up to become a cog in society."
"And then they find a so-called partner, who they don't even know if they love or not, and have a bunch of children, becoming busy and overwhelmed. Finally, when they manage to overcome all the hardships, they are already unable to move their bodies freely, and in the end, they lie in bed and die without their own will."
"Isn't this kind of world incredibly boring?"
"If you obtain extraordinary powers like Precure or Kamen Rider in such a boring world..." Ash pointed at them and then at himself.
"It's natural to want to make your life more exciting."
Collecting "dark echoes" from different worlds is not a safe endeavor, and Ash has died countless times himself.
He completely forgot his memories after the age of twelve, and now, when he tries to recall them, he only vaguely remembers the scenes of fighting alongside heroes or monsters in each world.
The missing parts of his memory, whenever he recollects them, only bring forth infinite emptiness and pain.
So, he tries to fill that void and mend the gaps in his soul in other ways while he is still alive.
"That's why I have to fully enjoy every moment of my existence!"
No, wait!
"Why must acquiring power out of nowhere mean that one has to fight for justice? Who decided that? You must also want to use this power for things you enjoy, right? Don't deceive yourself."
"I became Precure not just for that kind of reason!"
This time, it was Ai's furious shout that interrupted Ash's words.
"Why can't you understand what others are trying to tell you? You... engaging in senseless reasoning and attacking your own comrades."
Even now, even the broad and kind Ai has red eyes and clenched fists that make a crisp sound.
"You're someone who can't be reasoned with!"
A fist burning with pink brilliance directly strikes Ryuga's face!
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