Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume4 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 9===

Unable to sleep, her empty stomach complaining, Fear quietly got out of bed and went to the kitchen. Along the way, she sneaked a peek into the room where Kururi was tied up, but only found rhythmic snoring. To be able to sleep in that kind of posture, clearly she must be quite a happy-go-lucky person.

Then Fear walked into the kitchen.

She discovered a figure standing there, holding a sharp and bladed instrument.



"Wha... It's H-Haruaki? Don't scare me."

"Hmm? Oh yeah, sorry, of course this would frighten you. Only natural."

Yeah, on further thought, this really was quite strange&mdash;Thinking that to himself, Haruaki returned the kitchen knife to the rack on the counter. The girl's silver hair was glistening dreamily beneath the moonlight streaming in from the small window. Ahhh&mdash;It felt like he had seen this before&mdash;Yet it seemed unfamiliar at the same time&mdash;This mysterious silver color in the darkness. So confusing and ambiguous, even Haruaki was feeling anxious too.

The girl's eyes were extremely serious.

"...What are you doing?"

"No, I'm not planning on doing anything strange. I couldn't sleep, so..."

"So?"

Searching for the right words. This unease, anxiety and loneliness in his heart, how should he express them? He had come here because of such feelings. Somehow, he felt there was something in this kitchen.

"Wasn't I making dinner earlier? During then, there was a very nostalgic feeling. Right, I must have been doing this sort of thing every day&mdash;I thought to myself. I did not need to hesitate over portion sizes and could instantly figure out how to season things to suit everyone's tastes with applause. And eating together with everyone... It felt reassuring."

"..."

"So. Many things happened, umm&mdash;What I want to say is this, if there's any hint that could remind me of the past, I won't let go of it. Since I can't sleep, wasting time in the futon seemed wasteful, so thinking that, I came here wondering if I'd remember something with the kitchen knife in my hand perhaps..."

"A-And the result?"

Fear stood very straight and asked. Her sincere eyes were overflowing with guilt.

"...Sorry."

"R-Really?"

Her shoulders slumped. It was obvious she felt disheartened. But as if trying to cover it up, she puffed her chest unnaturally and took a step forward. What clumsy acting skills.

The long and flowing silver hair descended as she crouched down. The girl was noisily ransacking the kitchen cupboard in search of something.

Haruaki could not help but ask.

He shouldn't ask&mdash;A warning alarm rang out clearly somewhere in his mind.

"What are you looking for? Want me to help you?"

The reaction was very dramatic. The girl stopped searching the cupboard and looked back forcefully, her face filled with surprise&mdash;It was an expression of deep grief that was heartbreaking to watch.

"You forgot?"

Her voice sounded exceptionally feeble, fearful of the answer. Precisely because she already knew the answer, the fear in her heart was eating away at her delicate body.

"You even forgot my favorite food? The thing I eat every day, the first thing I ate the day I arrived, the thing you gave me to appease me, you forgot it? You really... forgot...?"

It was as a though a single sentence had dispelled the magic. Up until this point, she had been nonchalantly treating him as "Yachi Haruaki who had forgotten his memories with them." Consciously, she must have outfitted herself with some kind of filtering mechanism, turning a certain part of her mind sluggish, weakening a certain awareness, numbing a certain sense of recognition. And now, the magic was dispelled in this kitchen.

She was forced to confront what had been lost, bared in full view.

"...Sorry."

There was a crashing sound. Retreating unsteadily, Fear had smashed into the fridge. Her head bowed down, her silver hair was obscuring her expression.

"Everything&mdash;Everything&mdash;The time when I ran over to school on my own, when that woman with the strong arms came, when I planned on sleeping at the bottom of the sea, when you carried me home on your back, when I started school officially, when we met Sovereignty and Shiraho, when Kuroe came home, when helping at the beauty parlor's opening&mdash;You forgot everything?"

Ahhh, something seems to be surfacing now but disappeared. What should have been experienced and all sorts of unknowns. Don't disappear, I beg you, don't disappear. If you stay, this girl won't have to cry out like this. Haruaki clenched his fist tightly. Compared to not being able to recall his memories or everything else, the grieving sounds of this girl before him was the most unbearable.

"What about more recent events? Watching me as I practiced dancing? Eating roasted sweet potatoes together, the puppy going incontinent in Aiko's arms, the argument caused when you asked her to take off her clothes? R-Right, remember&mdash;"

Saying that, she opened the fridge behind her and took out a can of juice to show Haruaki. Judging from the excessively fancy colors, it was definitely a niche flavored drink.

"You bought this. You bought it for me! The instant just before Abyss erased your memories... Merely just an instant, at the picnic...!"

"...Sorry, I... can't remember."

Perhaps his own voice was shaking. Shaking even harder than she was.

Hearing his answer, she suddenly stopped moving. There was a sound coming from her throat similar to a gasp. Violently, she ripped away the ring to open the canned juice and started drinking it all at once. Finally, she dangled the emptied can weakly from her hand.

"It tastes terrible... So terrible! Absolutely terrible! Ahhh jeez&mdash;!"

She collided her head into Haruaki's chest. The silver hair swayed at extremely close range. Then without moving away, without letting their body warmth separate, her voice said with loneliness:

"...It tastes so terrible I'm about to burst into tears..."

"Sorry."

"I won't forgive you! How dare you buy something like this... Idiot! You're an idiot..."

Next came an attack on his abdomen. Thud thud thud&mdash;very feeble yet very painful punches landed on his flank a great many times. At the same time, her forehead struck his chest repeatedly in a similar manner. This soft sensation of her long hair. It's something he was supposed to find familiar.

Otherwise, he would not be experiencing this feeling of grief.

"I am... an idiot?"

"Yes! Not only an idiot, you are also a shameless brat..."

Showing even more suffering on her face than Haruaki, she told Haruaki about the Haruaki he did not know.

Such as suddenly looking at her nude body, his arm getting stabbed, jumping into the sea, toying with her embarrassing spot, staring at an air-headed girl's body, getting kidnapped, etc etc&mdash;

"...Am I really that much of a pervert?"

"You're the shameless brat."

Knock. Thud.

More attacks from the forehead and the fist.

"Also, why does it seem like I keep running into hardship? Like getting kidnapped."

"...Yeah. I think you've always been causing us trouble."

The rhythm of her attacks was disrupted for an instant, but then the "thud" of her fist came again.

What followed immediately was an extremely heart-wrenching whisper, sounding as though it were forced out whilst enduring great pain.

"Perhaps&mdash;to you, your current state is better. You're a nice guy to a fault and you always meddle too far in others' affairs. Forget about cursed tools, forget about helping us lift our curses, forget all the abnormalities in life&mdash;Just live your peaceful life as a guy who loves to cook. Perhaps that might be for the best."

I don't want that.

For some reason, this answer surfaced in Haruaki's mind reflexively.
[[image:C3 04-160.jpg|thumb]]

But before he could say it&mdash;

"But!"

"...!"

Thud&mdash;This time the punch on his flank really hurt quite a bit.

"But, I&mdash;I don't want that! I want you to be my friend forever! Beside me, taking care of me, praising my hard work when I am trying hard&mdash;That's how I hope for things to be..."

"..."

"Sorry, this is my willfulness. Sorry for being so willful, sorry..."

Her attacks had stopped before he could notice. Clutching Haruaki's clothes, her hand stopped as though she did not wish to separate from him, as though she would not let him leave. But she was using a very subdued forced&mdash;If he wished, he could instantly pull himself away from her hand.

But he did not wish for that.

That was not his wish.

He did not wish to remain in his current state&mdash;Wasn't that what I was also thinking just now? Idiot! Hurry up and tell her!

"Haha... I've been doing all the apologizing until now."

"...?"

Shining with silver and transparent luster, she lifted her head. Haruaki smiled wryly as he gazed down at her face.

"I know, okay. I don't know much but I know this... I have never thought to myself that my current amnesia would be for the best. I want to recover my memories, recover all the times I've spent with you girls&mdash;Maybe putting it a bit embarrassingly, I want our memories."

"Seriously...?"

"Seriously."

Then Haruaki reached out and caressed her head.

So soft and warm, what wondrous touch.

He did not want to remain in amnesia, definitely because&mdash;Indeed.

Having experienced this sense of touch before, forgetting a single instance would be a waste.

Just an insignificant reason like this would be sufficient. No mistake about it.



Feeling the touch of Haruaki's hand on her head, Fear recalled the question she had just asked herself.

&mdash;How deep did her resolve run?

The answer was decided. Now that things had reached this point, she clearly steeled her resolve.

&mdash;Her resolve was infinite and bottomless.

Yes, my fellow kin, my brethren born from curses. This sin must definitely be grave. Equivalent to a lifetime of murder, or even worse crimes, steeped in sin, deserving to be cursed.

To be honest, she had been hesitant so far. Having committed such crimes, was it really okay? She felt troubled. However, she now had a reason. Because she knew, this was not simply willfulness. Even having lost his memories, but precisely because he was definitely still himself, she believed in his words.

This reason was already sufficient.

Because she no longer doubted, for the sake of being together with him, she mustered unlimited resolve.

The sin of killing her own kind, perhaps that might be unforgivable. But even so, she would still gladly accept this culpability.

Indeed.

Tomorrow, she was going to find «Narrow Narrow Abyss»&mdash;

As well as Tateoka Aiko who was going to stand in their way as an enemy&mdash;

And destroy them.

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