Chapter Text
"King Selfishness is full of dark energy! You do know what will happen when you enter him, right?"
His warning to that sparkly and glittery girl echoed inside of his head.
Ever since Cure Diamond (and the others, although he didn't care as much about them) had gone inside King Selfishness, Ira just couldn't settle down. Bel and Marmo had ended up who knows where, blasted away by the Precure- vaguely the Selfish boy had considered for a moment that he should look for them and regroup, but right now his thoughts were scattered, so he couldn't concentrate on those thoughts.
It had been a warning, hadn't it? Ruffling his hair in frustration, Ira watched the giant form of King Selfishness carefully, his eyebrows in a knot. Why had he gone out of his way to say something like that? And honestly, he hadn't put up much resistance in the first place- he had basically just let Cure Diamond go on ahead.
Honestly, what was wrong with him lately? His thoughts were all in chaos, and there was an uncomfortable bubbling feeling in his chest. Sometimes it squeezed hard, and he didn't know how to explain it. He hadn't mentioned it to Bel or Marmo yet, though he kind of got the feeling that maybe it wasn't something that he should tell them.
Everything had been a mess, ever since he had briefly lost his memory. If he hadn't met that Cure Diamond girl then, then surely it wouldn't be like this. Had she done something to him while he had lost his memories? No, he didn't think that was it- he could clearly recall his time with her, after all.
"You're like an angel."
As those word echoed in his head, a faint red blush crossed the twelve year old cheek's. W-why was he remembering something like that now?! And so embarrassing! Had he really said something like that!?
"Ah, honestly! Something's definitely wrong here!" Shouting in frustration, Ira turned his attention back towards King Selfishness' form- he had stopped moving at some point, hadn't he? Narrowing his eyes, he felt a different kind of tension in his heart. Was that bad? Was King Selfishness losing against the Precure?
Rather, what was strange was that in spite of this being his master he was talking about, somehow the idea of him being defeated didn't exactly sit poorly with Ira. After all, if he was defeated then that girl surely would...
Surely would what!? Be fine? Live? Why was he even concerned about something like that? What was this even about!? Why on earth was he so concerned about this one Precure anyways?
Something was definitely wrong with him.
Come to think of it, was it really just concern for Cure Diamond? Hadn't he been worried about Regina earlier? He had felt relieved when her Psyche had returned to it's normal self, hadn't he? And now that he thought about it, wasn't he worried about Marmo and Bel?
Worry? Him? What the hell was a Selfish doing worrying about people?
But speaking of worries, was that Cure Diamond girl really doing alright in there? She hadn't run into trouble, had she? She was the enemy, he knew that of course, he knew that if she was defeated it would be only a good thing for them, but-
Somehow he couldn't get her out of his mind.
Growing more and more frustrated by this train of thought by the moment, the golden eyed boy let out a shout of frustration, all but giving up. "Who cares! She went in there of her own free will, babbling some nonsense about friends! What do I care about what happens to some stupid girl like her?"
But.
"When our friends are in trouble, you reach out a helping hand. That's what friends are for. You should be able to understand, Ira."
Scratching his head in frustration, Ira's brows furrowed further. What had she meant by that? There was no reason for her to believe that he would understand anything about friendship- he was a Selfish, he didn't care about things like that! He couldn't understand that way of thinking at all!
But was the really true?
"Ahh!" Letting out another shout of frustration, the tiny Selfish boy stomped his feet in the air, before heaving a deep, frustrated sigh. It wouldn't hurt to just go see what was happening, right? After all, if they had somehow gotten past all of the Jikochu inside of King Selfishness, it was his job to finish them off, right?
Even Ira could realize that line of logic was basically an excuse- but it was an excuse that the Selfish boy took, as he followed after the Precure. It had been several minutes since they had entered King Selfishness, they couldn't have possibly gotten that far into him yet, not with all of the Jikochu that were running amuck in his body.
All of the...?
Ira blinked, first struck by the complete lack of aforementioned Jikochu as he entered into King Selfishness. He was surely just as filled with dark energy as always- he could feel it tingle lightly against his skin, giving him energy of his own. But that was strange- he couldn't sense a single Jikochu around.
Well, this was the entrance, so maybe they had all followed the Precure deeper inside.
"Cold."
Ira frowned a little as he caught a slight chill, a small shiver running up his spine. That was strange- even when he had been in the frozen mountains, the cold hadn't really affected him any. This cold couldn't have been natural, then- but what was it?
Of course, it was difficult to miss something quite as massive as the huge diamond made out solid ice. It quickly was all that filled Ira's view, blocking his path forward. Even from this distance, he could make out a multitude of pure psyches frozen inside of it, and also-
"No."
It wasn't something he was even aware he had said out loud, as his golden eyes locked onto the form of the glittering, floaty blue Precure that had been filling his thoughts lately. Her eyes were closed, and she appeared frozen in attack position- Diamond Blizzard, or something, he vaguely recalled.
He had closed in on the huge diamond of ice before he even realized it- only the slight pain touching it sent through his hands caused his focus to sharpen again. This was definitely something made out of her own power- the purified psyches, that once would have been Jikochus, was proof enough of that.
But something like this...
He had warned her that something bad might befall her if she followed the others into King Selfishness, but he could have never imagined something like this. Getting defeated by the army of Jikochu, or something like that. But not this, never this.
And where were the other Precure? None of them were around. Had they been defeated? Surely they hadn't just left her here like this. Did they know? Surely they wouldn't have abandoned one of their friends like this, right?
Had she done this out of her own free will?
Was this how far Cure Diamond was willing to go to protect her friends?
He didn't understand it at all.
"What's the point of this!?" Ira found himself shouting, without meaning to. But once he started giving voice to his thoughts, he couldn't stop. "Hey, answer me! What's the point of doing this!? You're frozen in a block of ice! What good does that do you?! What's the point of it!? Is this what you meant by reaching out a helping hand? What's the point of that if you can't do anything yourself afterwards!"
The stinging sensation surged through the Selfish boy's hand again as he pounded on the ice crystal, but he didn't seem to pay it any mind. "Did you sacrifice yourself? What's the point of that? Will that make your friends happy!? What about your parents?! What if they can't even defeat King Selfishness? What then, what will have even been the point of this!?" He cried out, pounding his other fist against the ice crystal.
Even in the chilly air, he felt something hot trickle down one of his cheeks. W-was he crying? What for? What was the point of crying over someone stupid, that they had gone and pointlessly frozen themselves?
"I don't understand!" Ira shouted, but he wasn't sure if his words were directed towards the frozen form of Cure Diamond or not. "I don't understand anything anymore!"
That's right, everything had been messed up because of this girl! Wasn't it a good thing then, that she was frozen like this? If she wasn't around, he wouldn't have to feel these things, he wouldn't have these kinds of thoughts anymore, right? It would all go back to normal.
After all, she was the enemy, right? There was no point in being worried about the enemy. And to think after all of the effort that they had spent trying to defeat her and the others, she had just gone and defeated herself! It was laughable, hilarious even!
But then why was he crying?
Even as he tried to laugh, a hollow, empty, bitter sound, the hot tears didn't stop flowing. Even though she was his enemy, all he could remember of her was that angelic smile of hers, how gentle her hands were as she carefully treated his wounds, the smell of cooking...
If she was gone, those things would be gone from this world as well.
Ira was a Selfish, after all, and as that thought entered his mind, the idea that he absolutely didn't want that filled up his being. Freeing her would have provided no benefit to King Selfishness, and might even cement his defeat. Freeing her would mean that they would have one more Precure to deal with. Freeing the enemy meant betraying his master.
But Ira was a Selfish, and right now, all he wanted to do was ensure that a world without Cure Diamond didn't exist. No, rather, a world without Rikka was something he didn't want!
Narrowing his eyes, Ira wiped away his tears, and focused his attention on the block of ice in front of him. He wasn't honestly sure that this would work- but the very fact that King Selfishness was filled with dark energy, which gave him his powers, was enough to convince the young Selfish to give it a try.
Taking in and letting out a deep breath, ignoring the stinging pain that the contact with the Precure's ice caused him, he placed his hands flat on the ice crystal. He had never tried anything like this before, and honestly, he wasn't as strong as Bel or Marmo, but he just couldn't leave things like this.
The surge of dark energy that flowed from his hands wasn't like anything he had released before, not even when he had the Blood Ring. It ran through the ice, causing it to crack loudly, the sound echoing throughout the empty area. For a moment, it only caused the ice to crack- and then all at once, the frozen diamond burst apart, cracking into tiny, minuscule pieces, allowing the frozen psyches to escape and fly off.
And the girl frozen within the ice, now freed, headed for the ground. She didn't impact with it though, as a sigh of relief escaped from Ira's lips, carefully catching the blue Precure. Her eyes were still closed, and her skin was as cold as ice- but as Ira held her, he could feel her gradually warming up.
She would be fine.
And as the relief flooded his body, so too did the realization of what he had done. That's right, by doing this he had betrayed the others, hadn't he? Normally the impulsive, hotheaded boy wouldn't care about something like that- but whatever these feelings were that were stirring in his heart, they apparently included some sense of guilt for betraying his comrades.
Maybe he did understand what Rikka had been trying to tell him, at least a little.
What would happen to him if they found out? Would he be abandoned? Thrown out? Swallowing hard, Ira carefully placed the slumbering Cure on the ground. She was stirring somewhat- would she wake up soon?
He couldn't be there when she did. Somehow that was the feeling that he got. He didn't really have any reason for it, nor words to explain why- perhaps it was just fear. Swallowing hard, he lingered only for a moment longer- before Ira hurriedly flew off, trying to calm his raging sea of thoughts, and his beating heart.
Something really was wrong with him.