Kamen Rider is playing the villain in Pretty Cure

'Get it, I want it!'

While Archon was arguing with the girls and deciding whether to play with the thing or do them a favor, Regina reached out and took the gem.

"This is the royal gem." Regina held the gem in her palm and stared at it, repeating the name like a madman, not caring about the outside world's reaction at all.

"Princess?"

Even when Ash called her, there was no response. It was not until she raised her head after a while that Ash discovered that Regina's eyes had changed from the original clear blue to the same blood-red as the gem in her hand.

"Cereb—no!"

Instinctively calling out the name of a former enemy, Ash quickly realized that it couldn't be because of that reason, but regardless, Regina, whose entire temperament had completely changed, was most likely no longer the same person she once was.

In her bright red eyes, not only the girls who had just become friends, but even Ash, whom she had trusted, were no longer in her eyes.

Based on past experience, Ash has compiled a set of theorems. Once a normal person suddenly becomes emotional, or changes into a deep dark style outfit, especially if even their eyes start to turn red like a rabbit or become dull, then they will most likely have to choose one of the following: possession, brainwashing, blackening, or negative personality.

"Regina....Ah!"

Ai, who also sensed something was wrong, stepped forward and patted her shoulder, wanting to check on her and ask if something had happened. However, Regina turned hostile on the spot and slapped Ai's hand away with a bad expression.

Ai, feeling a little aggrieved, covered her red hand and wanted to say something, but was held down by Ash on the side. Ash shook his head at her, signaling her not to speak for the time being.

As luck would have it, as if because of the appearance of a new royal gem, the royal gems that the girls had originally kept also began to sparkle and glow in response. This immediately attracted Regina's attention. Seeing more royal gems, her eyes widened, and her staring expression was really scary.

"Hey, give me those royal gems!"

"Wait, Regina, these are important things!"

"I don't care, I just want it!"

Completely ignoring the girls' feelings, Regina began to ask for it from them directly.

The girls were surprised by Regina's sudden change. Previously, they were friends, transcending the barriers between the good and the bad, but now, at the mere sight of the gems, she had instantly turned against them, as if...

It was as if she had turned back into the self-centered, arrogant and selfish daughter of the king.

"If you don't want to hand it over, I'll take it from you by force!"

"Ash, go get me all the royal gems!"

"You really love to order people around, Princess."

Ash could clearly feel that Regina's tone at this moment had completely turned into the one he was familiar with, the imperative tone of a superior ordering a subordinate to die, without any of the intimacy she had shown when she was playing with him before.

But Ash was not angry, on the contrary, he was calm.

"henshin!"

With his arms crossed in front of him, Ash approached the girls who were facing a formidable enemy step by step.

"Looks like I have to be the bad guy now."

Chapter 57: Things Even Villains Care About

Ash, who hadn't figured out the specific situation yet, had no choice but to respond to Regina's instructions and took out the card box to transform into Dragon Fang form.

Of course, no matter what the situation was, Ash wasn't going to sit idly by. After all, Ash couldn't stand the Regina he knew becoming even more unreasonable than when they first met.

One day in the past, late at night in the Selfish Organization base, Ash, who had just returned from shopping after buying coffee ingredients, discovered that only the princess's room was still lit in the entire base. Out of curiosity, he quietly went over and opened the door a crack, intending to peek at what the princess was doing so late at night.

It's not that she was thinking about something very painful. Knowing that Regina was not used to staying up late, Ash thought that she didn't sleep because she was playing, but he saw the princess fighting with the Dark Team Gear under the desk lamp in the middle of the night.

At that time, the team gears in Regina's hand were given to Regina by Ash and asked to help charge them. As summoning props made to imitate the great power of the Super Sentai, filling the Dark Sentai gears requires a large amount of dark power and complicated craftsmanship. When they first saw it, they could only barely repair an adventurer's gear, but it made Regina very tired.

He knew from the beginning that it would be impossible to charge the gears so quickly. At that time, he was in the mood to repair as many gears as possible, so he handed it to Regina without taking it too seriously.

It can be said that from the very beginning Ash didn't think Regina could help him accomplish everything.

What he never expected was that he saw Regina working hard in the middle of the night. She even had her eyelids fluttering several times and fell asleep on the table for a short while. She then wiped her saliva and started to work on the gears again.

That day, Ash waited until Regina lay down and didn't get up again, and was completely asleep, then he opened the door, carefully moved her to the bed, and covered her with a quilt.

The next day, Regina pretended to be relaxed and returned all the gears to him, saying that if there were any left, he could give them to her. Hearing this, Ash silently stuffed the other gears that were piled up like a mountain into his inventory.

Ash once asked Regina why she was so dedicated to helping him, and the answer he got was: "Since you are my knight, as your princess, of course I will take good care of you!"

From then on, Ash no longer regarded the princess as an ATM machine that could be easily deceived.

I'm not a good person, but that doesn't mean there are no people I care about.

"Regina, even though you are the daughter of the so-called Selfish King, I know you are not a completely selfish person."

So, if he could find out who might be behind this...

I must chop both of his kidneys!

"Mr. Ash..."

Facing the girl who wanted to say something to him, Ash crossed his arms in a prohibitive gesture.

"This isn't a situation that can be resolved with words, is it?"

The girls looked at each other, and finally decided to transform first.

"Precure Love Link!"

Time was running out, so the four Pretty Cure girls skipped the roll call phase and carefully left Ai-chan outside the battlefield, confronting Ash in the art gallery.

"I'm sorry, I'll have to keep our previous agreement next time. Now I hope you can cooperate with me a little."

Although someone told me that agreements must be followed, they only said to follow them, not that they must be followed immediately, so this doesn’t count as breaking the agreement.

"Hey, can we put this promise off until next time? Wow!"

Before Ai could finish asking, she was frightened by the attack from Ash and cried out in surprise, quickly crossing her arms to defend herself.

Fortunately, after this period of fighting, the girls are no longer the same as before. Arisu and Rikka attacked from the left and right, forcing Ash to give up chasing. Makoto took advantage of the opportunity and the Sword Angel's sharp hand knife with a burning purple light chopped down at Ryuga's head.

Raising his hand, he grabbed Makoto's wrist and threw her backwards. Ash wanted to continue chasing her but was stopped by Arisu this time. Rikka took advantage of the situation and hugged Makoto who was thrown away to prevent her from hitting the surrounding sculptures and getting further hurt.

Looking back at Regina and noticing that her eyes were still on him, Ash had no choice but to try harder.

Just like the last time they fought, Ash grabbed Arisu's wrist and was about to throw her out, but the girl jumped up on her toes, wrapped her strong thighs around Ash's arms, and rolled like a crocodile in the water catching its prey, spinning at high speed with Ash as the fulcrum, causing him to smash to the ground.

"You're actually using my own tricks against me?"

"Mr. Ash, this is also the result of your training."

Rolling away from here and putting some distance between himself and the girl, Ash, who felt his whole hand starting to go numb, laughed instead. Facing Rikka and Ai who jumped up and kicked him at the same time, Ash did not choose to fight them. Instead, he used his other hand to grab Makoto's hand from behind who was trying to launch a sneak attack, and pinned her behind her back in front of him.

"Defense is coming!"

"Way!?"

Makoto, who didn't expect to be easily subdued by Ash, let out a surprised sound. The other two saw their teammates being blocked in front of them and quickly forced themselves to change direction. The uncontrollable speed made them fall to the ground and roll in a ball.

Makoto tried to break free but was grabbed by a pair of iron-like hands, which kept pushing her in the opposite direction. The girl, with cold sweat on her forehead, had no choice but to give up.

"You actually used me as a shield, how despicable!"

"Who told you to be so flat? Even Ultraman's is bigger than yours." She glanced at the stone sculpture of Manisan, striking his signature chest-out pose. It was indeed bigger than hers. "Block it for me, it won't cost you a thing."

I didn't expect Ash to say that. Makoto's face turned red and purple, and she was embarrassed and angry. She stomped her feet in anger: "You pervert who only knows how to stare at girls' breasts!"

"Why should I look at something that doesn't exist?"

As soon as she finished speaking, she felt a pain in her foot. She looked down and saw Makoto stepping hard on her instep with her high heels.

"Ha, stubbing your toes, a child's trick—"

Ash was kicked from behind by three other equally angry girls.

The battle is still going on. Whenever Ash is about to attack any party, he will be met with a strong counterattack from the other three. As the advantage gradually turns to the Pretty Cure.

"Hmph, it feels like we're cooperating with each other."

A hero who encounters an obstacle will not stand still but continue to grow, so Ash feels that his efforts are not in vain.

After all, this is more interesting... Oh, no, I almost got too high again and almost forgot that the focus today is not fighting.

"Don't underestimate Pretty Cure. Mr. Ash is indeed very powerful, but we are also working hard to become stronger!"

This should have made Ash happy, but Ash's attention was not on them now.

He continued to look back at Regina, who was in an abnormal state. She still looked like a madman, staring at the royal gem without letting go.

I should have thrown away this harmful thing earlier. Is there any way to arouse her consciousness...I got it!

Chapter 58: Dark Padding

Ash slowed down his full-strength attack, but was immediately approached by Ai, who launched a series of aerial kicks that almost knocked his helmet off if Ash hadn't dodged in time.

"Wait, Mana!" Rikka quickly leaned over to the excited Ai and whispered, "Mr. Ash is obviously trying too hard against us. You're really trying too hard!"

After hearing Rikka's words, Ai, whose passion was ignited by the battle, finally realized that Ash was obviously not as active in the battle today.

"Oh, it seems like I can beat Mr. Ash for the first time. I accidentally gave it my all."

The girl scratched the back of her head in embarrassment, but the knight on the other side scoffed at her idea.

"You are only slightly better than a third of a half-witted person right now. It will take you more than 20,000 years to defeat me."

"Not at all, not if I get serious!"

"Alright, alright, what are you three year olds?"

Rikka quickly stopped the two who were about to start arguing again. After all, the most urgent task now was to solve Regina's problem.

Ai turned her gaze towards Regina, and now the tenderness in the girl's eyes from not long ago was gone, and her bright red, burning eyes held only malicious desire.

"Regina, what's wrong with you?"

"I was really happy today when you said you wanted to be friends with everyone, not just me. But why... now?"

Ai called out Regina's name, but Regina, who was in an abnormal state at the moment, was obviously completely unable to hear her voice.

"What are you talking about? I just want that royal gem right now. Since you said we are friends, just give me all the gems!"

"But--!"

When the Pretty Cure heard this, their hearts suddenly became heavy, and a terrible thought began to rise from the bottom of their hearts.

Could it be that all that was said before, that he wanted to be friends, was just a lie? Was all this a trick to get the royal gem?

No, no, Regina is definitely not such a bad girl!

Ai Aida quickly shook her head, trying to get rid of this terrible thought.

In fact, when Ai saw Regina for the first time, she noticed the kindness hidden beneath the princess's surface, and she was so moved by it that she wanted to become friends with her even more.

Ai, who took the initiative to contact her, intends to impress her with his sincerity. At present, except for Ash, no one can resist being conquered by her unremitting efforts.

The same goes for Regina. After overcoming difficulties and trying hard to stick to her own heart, she finally straightened out her point of view of not caring about others. She was about to become everyone's friend, but then this happened.

Even if this possibility is very high, love does not want it to be true at all.

The love that was tangled in his heart made him forget one thing, temporarily forgetting one person. He was one step slower in his hands and feet when he acted at the same time as the other four people, and a huge flaw appeared in front of Ash.

Not wanting to miss any flaw, Ash flexed his fists. The muscles in his arms tightened like hemp ropes and released instantly. His fists spun out like bullets, knocking back Rikka and Arisu. His left foot, emitting jet-black electric light, kicked Makoto's hands away with two moves to the left and right. He raised his right leg high and smashed it down on his head like a heavy axe. Makoto's back was like a truck reincarnated from another world, and she screamed and fell to the floor, adding another humanoid enlargement from the Sword Angel to the art museum.

The knight seized the opportunity and used a series of moves to instantly repel the three people without stopping. He stretched out his right hand like lightning and reached into Ai's collar to pull the girl towards him.

The cold feeling on her neck brought the girl back to her senses, but it was too late.

The view in front of him shifted instantly, and Cure Heart was embraced by Ryuga's arms. In such an ambiguous position, Ash rested his chin on the girl's shoulder. (See Juggler.)

"Forgetting to fight on the battlefield is not a good habit."

Before the girl could utter a shy exclamation, the distance between them quickly widened and then closed again, and a sharp, silver-gleaming sword blade was placed across Ai's neck.

"Don't move."

Seeing the terrifying sharp edge pointed at her, Ai felt as if she had fallen into an icy cave, and her heart was pounding as if it was gripped by fear. The other girls did not dare to act rashly when they saw Ai being captured. They seemed extremely nervous, fearing that Ash would do something.

"Why, Mr. Ash?"

Didn't they say they would release water? Why is this happening?!

"Well, worthy of being Ash!" Regina laughed triumphantly upon seeing this scene, and this time she asked them for it with more confidence.

"If you want Mana, exchange it for gems."