C3 ~Cube x Cursed x Curious~

[kage_musha]

I'll try hard to finish up the chapter one as soon as I can. (^^)b I really appreciate the help :3

[ken_FF]

Up to what volume is it?

[kage_musha]

Currently up to volume 5.

I was kinda busy so I was only able to TL few parts :/

Chapter one: Night of Rubik's cube (part 3)

Next day, during lunch break at school. Haruaki opened the lid of his lunch box and thoughts about the problem he left alone in his house came to his mind.

(I wonder If she'll be alright alone. I did left her a note and some leftovers from my lunch box, but... Wait, what if she can't read?)

When Haruaki visited the girl in her room this morning, she was still sound asleep with a happy expression. He tried to wake her but she didn't wake up
so he just left her a note that says he's going to school and he'd left her some food.
Haruaki wondered if she was still asleep. When he woke up this morning, his futon was gone. When he entered the girl's room, he saw that the girl was covered
with HIS futon while hers was abondened on the corner of her room. How it happened was still a mystery to him.

"Hey Haruaki! what's with you? You petrified all of a sudden after you opened your lunch box... Maybe you should be moving your body more, not just for cooking and house work.
Baseball is great, if you'd just give it a try!"

A class mate whom Haruaki always had his lunch with spoke to him. His name was Hakuto Taizo.

"His withered expression is nothing new, but it does have a different glow compared to his usual expression. Maybe---- he made some girl pregnant? Hahaha!"

"Kana! enough of your vulgar jokes!"

A girl with healthy sun-kissed skin, Miyama Kana, followed Taizo's teasing with her own.
The class rep, Ueno Kirika, remonstrated kana about her vulgar remark.

Kirika let out a disgusted sigh and turned to face Haruaki.

"Forget Kana's reckless remark. But, I too think that you lack the concentration that you usually have. Is there some thing that makes you anxious?"

"Huh? No, no, I don't have any problem. Maybe I caught a chill last night."

"Did you hear that Taizo-san? Kirika-chan just said something like this: I'm always looking at Yachi so I know something's wrong with him! Ohh, If there was something I
could do to comfort him..."

"What a villain you are Haruaki! Since when did you stole class rep's heart? Did you save a princess? Have you set a fire to a forged bill factory? Did you kill someone
in clocktower with pair of scissors?"

"Both of you! stop s-saying nonsense! How foolish!"

Taizo and Kana had been Haruaki's friend since his junior high years while Kirika became his friend in high school.

Kirika was a formidable class rep. She was calm and composed at all times and her grades were top-notch. She always wore a knee-length long skirt, which gave her a impression
that she was born two decades later than she should have. She also hated to expose much of her skin, and was always wearing a jersey during physical education classes and
even at summer, she wore a long-sleeved blouse.
Because of this, only few people tried to get close to her and she was often alone during her first few days. It was only Kana, who was friendly to everyone, who forcefully
brought Kirika with them.
There was a specific reason though, why Kirika started to take her lunch together with them.

"Setting aside those worthless remarks, let us proceed to our daily showdown. I'm confident with my fried eggs today. I'll get back for all my previous losses! I'm counting
on you two for the judge."

Kirika opened her lunch box and brought it to Taizo and Kana's table.

"So, Kirika-chan. Do you think you have a chance of success today?"

"I've tasted it several times. Plus, I got hold of the fact that Yachi might have caught a cold... that means his taste organ might not be working well. I decided that today
is the day."

A spirited glare pierced Haruaki.

[kage_musha]

Chapter one: Night of Rubik's cube (part 4)

"Oh...where is she getting all that motivation...?"

"Well, they say that maintaining health is part of the battle. We only care about the taste, so don't worry. After all, we are the judges. Alright, here I go---!"

"I'll have this first!------wow Kirika-chan! these fried eggs are just great! I love the crunchy bacon bits!"

"Really now? So, It's great huh? hehehehe.....!"

Kirika saw the two gave her food a good evaluation and smirked. But, that smirk was off her face immediately since the battle was still ongoing.
The judges reached for Haruaki's lunch box and-----

"Akki's fried eggs are delicious too! It's soooo good! .... Hmm I wonder where this strange taste comes from?"

"Haruaki, what did you add to your fried eggs?"

"I've put some avocadoes in it. Hehe, I based it from an old cooking manga."

Taizo and Kana looked at eachother and nodded. They grabbed the winner's lunchbox and raised it above their heads, looking like a funny symmetrical statues holding a
lunch box.

"Um, the tastes were both great but we dicided that Haruaki won for his novel idea!"

In that moment, Kirika lowered her head, her both hands shaking.

"Ugh....! Novelty.... They're right. My attention was tied to the taste and I failed to give a thought about an original idea....! So I learned today that conseravative
idea alone is not enough to go against the ever-changing idea these days!"

".....Hey, class rep, I keep telling you that you shouldn't be THAT serious with the battles."

Haruaki tried to reassure. Kirika raised her head and said;

"I can't keep on losing to a man especially when its about cooking! I'll win for sure next time!"

He've already heard that line many times. But, telling that now to the class rep would be suicidal so he kept his mouth shut and just returned a bitter smile.

After that, they proceeded on having their own lunch for a while.
Little later, Haruaki heard a classmate calling out to him that he had a visitor. He looked at the door and saw a familiar face.

"It's Konoha-san! She's just as...well, you know, as always! Damn it Haruaki, please tell her that I, Taizo, send my appreciation for her being as beautiful as
a belladonna!"

"I don'k know why Hakuto would choose a poisonous flower to campare to her. It's plain stupid."

Haruaki ignored the conversation behind him and walked over to the door. It was his first time seeing konoha in school today.

"What's up?"

"There's nothing important, really... It's just that I worry about that girl..."

"I tried to wake her up but she won't so I just left her alone with a note."

"What?"

She froze.

"Was it ok to leave her alone?"

"From what I saw last night, I think that she's harmless enough but, hmmm... now that you mentioned it, I started to worry about her. After all, we didn't talk that much."

"Have you seen her.... original form?"

"Just a little bit, when I saw her for the first time. She was a big mysterious box."

He started to think about something for a moment but decided that he had no idea what she was and shook his head in surrender.

"Well, if you say that she's alright, I guess she is. I suppose there's nothing to worry about."

Konoha bowed her head in good bye and went back to her class room.

(She said there's nothing to worry about, but....)

When a person starts to worry, It won't leave him until he checked on what was worrying him. It was like having second thoughts about your answer in an examination when you
checked it over for a correction. Haruaki had no choice but to stare at the slow-moving clock inside the classroom and wait for the time to go home.

After the classes, Haruaki and Konoha met in front of the school entrance.

"Don't you have a student council meeting today?"

"I've passed for today. I felt like it."

There was an understanding between the two. Haruaki hurried back to his house together with Konoha who was publicly known as his related cousin.
They arrived at the gate, opened it quickly, then entered the house. There they saw----

"What the?!"

They saw that the inside was horrible. Turned back table was standing in a slant position, its leg piercing the sliding door. The cabinets turned over. On the floor was
unnecessary things that should have been inside the closet scattered all over.

....Just in a half day, his place of rest became a place of chaos. Something extraordinary must have happened here.

Haruaki's searched for the silver-haired girl, his heart beating wildly. He found her immediately.
She was lying face-down on the porch. Not a movement from her. He kneeled over her and picked her up.
He tried to talk to her while he shook her body. Her eyes opened and she blinked with a blank stare.
Konoha went to the kitchen to get a water but hurriedly came back.

"We've got a problem! the kitchen too is in wretched condition!"

"Just what in the world happened here... Fear! come on, Fear!"

"Ugh...... Stop shaking me... I'm alright..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Oh, you just don't know what I've been thorugh."

Fear sat up and held her head. her head was drooped as she breathed in and out, as if saying that she was about to say something very important. She raised her head and said;

"Listen... A light green-colored alien with three legs came here a while ago and----"

"Haaaa!"

Before Fear could finish, haruaki's hand went to the back of her head. A good sound came out from his strike.

"W-what are you doing all of a sudden?! You want me to curse you?!"

"I should be the one asking you what were you doing! I get it, you had nothing to do so you tried to destroy the house didn't you? Look at what you did!"

"Y-you're wrong..."

Fear faced away.

"Then how can you explain my collection of rare dishes being sucked by the vaccuum cleaner?! I could only take it as a presentation of malice against me! Have I done anything
to you?!"

Haruaki cornered her. Fear just made a sullen face and glared Haruaki.

"Shut up! I don't care what you say about me! I'm feeling sleepy so I'll go get a sleep! Don't even try bothering me!"

She ran away to her room. Haruaki was taken back by her sudden outburst and lost the will power to follow her.

"That little... tsk, she should try to be the one who'll fix these things up! So this is how'd she repay me for my kindness!"

"...Um, excuse me?"

Konoha was the one who was poking my shoulder. She said to Haruaki in an awkward manner;

"I think that in that situation, you have some faults too, you know."

"Whay? I can't explain what she did other than playing a prank against me."

"Well, if you try to look at things around you, maybe you'll see what I mean. Try to look over there on the garden. Or at the kitchen"

I tried to look at where she pointed out. It was totally different from how I left them this morning. I still couldn't see anything other than Fear trying to play a-----

"....Huh?.... That girl... was she trying to...?"



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What Fear did first when she entered her room was to mount on a pillow and punch it to get some stress out of her body. The moment she got out of breath, she took the futon out
and covered herself with it. But, that didn't completely took out her anger.

"Hmph....Hmph! That Idiot, that shameless brat....! He doesn't have to be so..."

He didn't even try to listen to my explnation. How annoying.
Well, to tell the truth, she wasn't that enthusiastic about trying to explain things to him...

"There's no way i could tell him what I've been up to."

She can't explain THAT to him. It was too embarassing and too disappointing. She had that much pride, at lest. She couldn't help it but----it was annoying.
After letting out a big snort. She rearranged the futon and covered her head again.

[ShadowZeroHeart]

Is this updating still gonna continue? Should we put it onto wiki?

[Assassin]

Is this updating still gonna continue? Should we put it onto wiki?

It's already in progress, mister

Truth to be told, Oni did say about setting up the wiki section for this series. Although I wanted to help, but it's too much work for me in the current time being ^^;;

[Krikit]

so nobody has started on the wiki then?

okay, give me some pointers:

1) Site name on the wiki.
ex: http://www.baka-tsuki.net/project/index ... XXXXXXXXXX

2) How many chapter in volume 1, if there is a prologue/epilogue, authors notes, etc.

3) Author

4) a picture in spoilers that you want to be the cover for the novel

and with that, I can manage the page

[kage_musha]

That would be a great help krikit.

I'll PM those infos later^^

Chapter one: Night of Rubik's cube (part 5)


For the few days that Fear spent together with Honatsu, she was taught by him the basic japanese reading and writing, as well as the common knowledges about modern world.
That was why Fear was able to read the note that Haruaki left for her. She thought that leaving her alone here was impertinent but there wasn't anything she could do about
it so she just ate the breakfast/lunch that Haruaki left for her. After the meal, fear murmured to her self.

"..... Phew. How boring."

She was sitting at the porch and looking up at the sky. That was when the "urge" hit her. It was a refreshing experience since it was her first time, but it was kind of
embarassing thinking about it------The call of nature.

"Being a human wasn't as comfortable as I thought."

She went to the washroom, making a face. After few moments, her mission was completed.

"Now that was convinient. Haruki said that it was called a faucet. I was quite amazed."

Fear stood before the wash stand, washing her hands and thinking about the great changes of the world around her. She mastered the use of faucet. Though she was amazed
sometimes at the technology, she taught that it was not enough to make her afraid.
While she was shaking the water off her hands, something inside the room caught her eye.

"Hm. I know that machine. It's called a "Washing machine". You put water and detergent to it and it will wash the clothes automatically."

Fear remembered what Haruaki said last night. She had to do something that [people would be thankful for] in order to lift her curse. Now, she thought about her current
condition. She had nothing to do. Maybe she should start doing something that would be helpful for people. Haruaki also said that it would take a lot of time to lift the
curse. If so, she should start early to finish earlier than it will originally take.

"....Hehehe. Thank me for what I'm going to do. And marvel at my true capacity...!"

First of all, she grabbed the clothes in the laundry basket and put them inside the washing machine. Next, she searched for a box of laundry detergent and found a box of powder
besides the washing machine. She tried to smell and it smelled like soap. She thought with confidence that this was the laundry detergent. Finally, she put the detergent inside
the washing machine-----one whole box of it. After the procedure, she tried to push different buttons and saw that the machine started to operate.

"I can do this...hehehe. I'm amazed by my adaptation ability. Well, Maybe I should clean the house next!"

The thing that she needed was called a vacuum cleaner. According to Haruaki, it was a box with long nose attached to it. She found the vaccuum cleaner inside the closet.

"I know too that this machine requires electricity. There should be a nose-like hole on the walls. Hm, this should be it. It does look like a nose hole. But, hmmmm this
fork at the back of the vaccuum machine won't reach those holes......Wha?!"

The cord extended as she played with the plug. She was surprized by the unexpected movement.
She caughed, held her head high, and looked at her left and right.

"......It was just a feint. I knew about that."

She inserted the plug into the consent and tried to push all the buttons of the vaccuum cleaner. It revved up and started to suck in dust. Perfect.
Fear slowly moved the vaccuum and cleaned the whole room. She started to enjoy using the vacuum, so she proceeded on cleaning anywhere that she pleased.
She gradually got used to it and became faster as she cleaned. though, there were some unknown phenomenon where the cord became heavier and crashing sounds resounded
behind her. Fear tried to look back but something more important entered her sight. It was a black eight-legged insect that was crawling above the tatami.

"A s-spider?!"

Goose bumps rose all over her. Fear asked herself why did it have to appear in front of her.
She vilificated her luck and tried to run away but she quickly turned back in self denial, thinking that she shouldn't back off against a spider.
Grabbing the vaccuum cleaner, Fear rushed to the spider. The machine she was holding wasn't a convinient vacuum cleaner anymore. It was an advanced weapon that could
send that wretched spider into another dimension.

"Turn into ash with the power of electricity!"

The spider quickly changed its direction and was able to evade the attack. It went inside the open closet where the vacuum cleaner was placed.
Fear couldn't hold back so she inserted the vaccuum inside the closet and tried to suck in the spider. The vaccuum hit other things inside the closet while
fear was maneuvering it. They came crashing out of the closet.
The vaccuum must have sucked in something big since the vaccum suddenly stopped working after raising a wierd sound.

"What the?!"

She was the one attacking a while ago but now the table was turned against her. She backed a few steps and quickly shut the closet door. She sat down, let out a sigh and
thought of letting go of the closet door.
What should I do? Should I attack again? No, there's no need. he won't be able to get out unless I open this door. That's right, I'll just keep it shut. I'll just have
Haruaki terminate it when he came home.

"I didn't saw anything..... Yes, that's how it is."

Fear saw an object familiar to her rolling near her feet. It must have come from the closet. It was a cube with size where one could hold inside his palm, having a surface of
3x3 tiles. Every tile was painted with different colors.
She slanted her head and tried moving the cube. the colored tile shifted. She thought that if the tiles are moved right, the color on surface of the cube would be uniform.

"...... ...... ...... Oh! I forgot that there are things that I should be doing right now."

Fear placed the cube back on the floor. That moment, she heard a buzzing sound coming from the washing machine. She remembered that she was washing clothes.

"....Well, it certainly is showy. I wonder if it was necessary to do that much."

Bubbles were bursting ot from the washing machine like a mountain. Not only that, the overflowed water made a pool on the floor.
Anyway, If there was a washed clothes, it must be hung to let it dry.
Fear rescued the washed clothes out of the washing machine and placed them in a basket. She got out into the garden and went to the drying pole. The garden was carpeted
with green grass and it felt good to her bare feet.
Fear stood before the drying pole, wrung the clothes and set them on the pole to dry. There were triangular beak-like things on the pole but she didn't know what its used for
so she put them away. Maybe it was a charm or something.

"This is the last....one. Phew. It's perfect."

The clothes waved like a flag. Thinking that she was the one who did it caused a strange sense of fullfillment course through her.

It came when she tried to turn back, confident about her victorious feat-----A gust of wind.

There was no way she could go after it, and the towel went up over the roof. She made a wry face and jumped high onto the roof.
She heard a sound of something breaking below her but the towel was more important at that moment. She collected the towel and jumped down to the ground.
At that moment, another gust of wind came, as if it was playing a prank against her. Because of this, some of the clothes flew high up onto the branch of a tall tree.
She clucked and placed the collected towel on the pole. The moment she let go of the towel, the gust carried it up agin, on to the tree branch. Damn. It was endless.

"..... Er, well. Clothes will dry faster if there was a wind to dry it. That means that those clothes over there on branch will dry faster. When viewed from a broad
perspective, it was better that it went up there on the tree.... or at least, I think that way."

She forcefully convinced herself and turned back to the house's direction, trying not to look at the waving clothes on the tree.
Strange thing came into her view. And it was....

First, there was the living room. The cabinets were turned over and the table on the center was slanted into a wierd position. Its foot pierced through the sliding door.
The cord constricted around the table. She didn't noticed because of the appearance of the spider and the cubic toy. Somehow, she tought she knew what that caused weird phenomenon earlier.
Adding to that, many things which came from the closet were scattered on the floor and the vaccuum cleaner was lying dead on the floor.
Fear also noticed that something fell from the roof and saw that it was a gray-colored roof tile. It must have been the breaking sound she heard when she jumed over to the roof.

It was the first time that fear thought that something was strange. It seemed that the house became disarranged, more than before she started cleaning. In fact. she had a
feeling that it was completely wretched. She wondered why.

"Could it be that I have done something wrong?"

Two people's footsteps answered her question.
Fear slowly went over the porch and layed on her stomach, thinking.
A poltergeist or an alien. Which would be more credible if she were to reason out?

[kage_musha]

Whew. with this, chapter 1 is done, yay^^ I can finally proceed with putting it up on the wiki.

Chapter one: Night of Rubik's cube (part 6)


"Hmmmmmmmmm. I have this feeling that what she tried to do was too predictable but, could it be really...?"

Haruaki murmured to himself while looking up at the laundered clothes swaying on the branches of the tree located in the garden.

"If she was just playing around, she wouldn't think to put a laundry detergent into the washing machine.... Except for the amount she put in it. If you go to the washing machine
right now, you'll see for yourself that its throwing out bubbles like a crab."

Konha raised her hands and formed a "scissors", trying to imitate a crab. Haruaki picked up the rubik's cube that was laying on the floor.

"Really. Where did she find this thing?"

"Um, Haruaki kun...? Do you remeber the time when I first came here?"

"I can't remeber much of the details, but I do. You did some strange things back then."

She came to this house when Haruaki was about to enter the grade school. Of course, he didn't remeber the clear details but he could still remeber Konoha's impression.

"I thought so. Well, I wanted you to forget all about it at first but thinking about it it now, I'm glad that you still remeber how I used to be."

"Why?"

"Hehe. You just have to tell Fear-san what you told me back when we first met. With that, I bet all the problems will be solved."

"I don't remeber what I told you. What did I say back then?"

"Well, Haruaki-kun didn't change a bit so you just have to tell her what's on your mind right now."

After that, Konoha offered to help cleaning up the house but Haruaki politely refused. He felt that it was something he had to do, and not anyone else. Konoha didn't argue
with him.
Later, after konoha went back to the outer building, Haruaki left the rubik's cube on the table and looked up at the ceiling.

"Oh hell. What am I supposed to do...."



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In that evening.

"Hey. Are you awake?"

He waited patiently for the answer. After few moments, it came to him.

"Shut up. I'm asleep."

"No you're not. You answered my question."

"Shut up and be silent if you don't wanna be cursed."

"Alright, alright. So, don't you have something to say?"

After an interlude of silence, Fear replied that She didn't have anything to say to him. Haruaki said never mind and sighed. Talk about being stubborn.

"You might not have anything to say to me, but I do. Well, er... I'm sorry."

There was no reply. There wasn't anything he could do for her silence so he just continued speaking.

"I already knew what should I do, but I forgot. You look like a human but you aren't-----but in reality, you're a human so you might have some difficulties at first. There might
be things that you wouldn't understand, and there might be times where you bother other people. There also might be times where you have a quarrel with someone. Konoha also
went through all of that."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about but don't compare me to that cowtits. It's unpleasant."

"Yeah, ok. Well, what I want to say is... that you don't have to hurry trying to lift your curse. And, if there was something that you don't know, just ask me and I'll teach you
so long as it was something that I know. I left your dinner at the kitchen so you can have it when you get hungry. I'll be going now. Oh, I forgot, here's my present for you.
take it."

Haruaki left the paper bag he was carrying onto the floor in front of the sliding door. After that, he went back to his room, yawning as he walked away.
After few minutes, the sliding door silently opened. After some minutes of observation, a white hand came out and took the paper bag. The sliding door moved silently as the
sliding door closed.



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Inside the paper bag was some clothes. They were kind of big but most of it were universally fitting one pieces. There was also new underwears that was wrapped in a plastic.
A note fell from it saying "Only underwear should be brand new for infants"....

"Drop dead!"

Fear threw the note on the floor by reflex. She noticed that behind the paper was another note addressed to her. It said, "If you want a bra, try to work part and buy it your-
self. You'll be able to do so when you get used to living here..... We'll, we're cursed tools so our body wont grow. That means that there won't be a need to, I mean, It would
be just a waste of time if you...."

A heel drop struck the paper before Fear could finish reading.
There were other things inside the paper bag other than the clothes. It was the cubic toy from earlier. And, there was also...

"....a rice cracker."

Her stomach growled. Haruaki said that She ate all the stock so he must have bought it for her.

"H-Hmph. I won't be bribed that easily. Does he think I'm such a child that I'll fall to his scheme?"

Despite her muttered complaints, her hands opend the snack and dug-in to the treat. Her other hand played with the rubik's cube. Sound of creaking plastic filled the room.

"Hm. Sesame seeds. It's coated with sesame seeds. how fragrant..."

Fear thought about Haruaki while two sounds resounded inside her room.
Well, I'll forgive that shameless brat for now. He should thank my merciful heart. First things first-----I should ask him where this wonderful snack is being sold.

[Krikit]

Done with my editing

http://www.baka-tsuki.net/project/index ... edxCurious

So...what do you think? It will have that WARNING Template until it gets moved to the sidebar by Oni, so bear with it

I don't know how many chapters are in each volume, (prologues, epilogues, etc), so right now Volume 1 only has the section for the prologue and chapter 1.

[kage_musha]

Great job Krikit, thanks a lot!

Oh yeah, the volume 1 consists of 5 chapters, and an epilogue.

chapter 1: Night of Rubik's cube
chapter 2: When the contents of the cube are exposed
chapter 3: Cold curse, Warm curse
chapter 4: Voice, a termination, not a termination, her, and her
chapter 5: Here
Epilogue

[Krikit]

you're welcome

2 things:

first, I've updated volume 1 to include the 5 chapters, prologue and the epilogue now.

second, if you don't have a b-t user name, now's a good time to make one afterwards, if you go to this page:

http://www.baka-tsuki.net/project/index ... ation_Page

for the registration, and click on edit, then you can do the following by the chapter sections:

* Prologue - [[user:Your-User-Name|Alternative-Name]]
* Chapter 1 - [[user:Your-User-Name|Alternative-Name]]
* Chapter 2 -[[user:Your-User-Name|Alternative-Name]]
* Chapter 3 -
* Chapter 4 -
* Chapter 5 -
* Epilogue -

An Example of how to type your user name and stuff:

[[user:Seaghyn16|Krikit]]

my B-T user name is Seaghyn16, but my nickname is Krikit, so that's what I have written.

[Krikit]

haha, I wonder if I'm starting to get kind of hooked on this story too....is it alright if I ask if there's more coming??

[kage_musha]

Yeah, a LOT more

[onizuka-gto]

project meets minimum standard. approved. topic moved.