Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume1 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 1===

"...What is this? Custard pudding?"

The girl said as she poked the yellowish-white object in front of her with a sulky expression.

"Have a taste and you'll know."

"Hmmm... hm?! Th-This..."

She guided the spoon into her mouth, then froze up.

"It's not sweet! This is a fake! What malicious food... When something has a soft foundation and covered with black sauce, it just has to be a pudding!"

"Don't call the food malicious. It's simply tofu, coagulated soybean juice. You don't like it?"

Haruaki sat just opposite of the girl after removing the apron he had on.
The girl's ill temper was obvious as she chewed the chilled tofu. She was now wearing a borrowed shirt and hot pants.

"Hmph, it's not bad. It's inferior to the crunchy snack I was munching earlier, though."

"Poor tofu, being compared to a rice-cracker."

"So, that was called a rice-cracker. Now, that one had a unique food texture. It was sweet but spicy at the same time, and that feeling while crunching at it... h-huh?
Why are you looking at me?"

Haruaki simply answered that it was nothing, and looked away from the face that said she was caught off-guard. He started eating too. Haruaki thought that this situation was just like what the old sayings said: To eat while you can, since you can't fight a war on an empty stomach.
The girl who sat opposite of him unnecessarily checked that the food in front of her was a fish, looking at the broiled mackerel pike as if she had never seen one before.
After her thorough observation, she placed down the spoon and fork she was holding. Haruaki imagined what she was going to do and initiated a warning before the girl's
bare hands got the mackerel.

"Wait. You'll have to go over my dead body first before you can eat something with bare hands in front of me."

Haruaki reached for the mackerel plate to prevent her hands from grasping it, but for some reason the girl suddenly backed off the tatami space she was sitting on.

"Hey wait. I just misunderstood things earlier. I was a little confused at first, but I'm alright now. I even lent you those clothes, didn't I?"

"I-I'm not sure... I mean, you recently played with THAT part of my body earlier in front of the gate..."

"But I didn't know I was touching THAT part of your body. Oh hell, I'm sorry anyway. Just forgive me already, 'kay?"

Haruaki asked her a cliched apology while he started on the mackerel pike with his chopsticks.

"Watch me, I'll show you how to dismantle this mackerel. Just do it first like this, then grab its head, and then pull it away with those nasty fishbones. It's easy, isn't it?"

The girl watched with interest for a while, but she quickly recovered her wary face. After a few seconds, she snorted with an ill temper as she sat back in front of the table.

"By the way, what's your name?"

"...I'm called Fear."

Fear quickly shut her mouth, as if she were surprised that she'd told him her name.

"Fear, is it?"

"Well, yes. It's none of your business though... you can just call me whatever you want."

"Unfortunately, you're part of my business now. You just became my top priority. In fact, the way you became my top priority was almost foul play. So, what are you anyway?
What kind of box are you?"

"Er..."

"Er?"

Without warning, she raised her eyebrows in outrage and started making holes in the broiled mackerel, just after Haruaki raised a question mark at her answer.

"Shut up! It's none of your business, you fool!"

"Whoa! What kind of cursing was that?! I haven't heard them for a while. Anyway, are you a brat, having an outburst like that?!"

"W-Why you?!"

"I haven't heard that for a while too... wha, hey! Stop attacking that mackerel and close your mouth!"

"Digging up a lady's past like that! You should learn some respect, you shameless brat!"

Haruaki thought that he didn't want to hear that from HER. But being the sensible one, he decided to give up.

"Whew... Well, I won't push you if you don't want to tell me about your past. I know it's not exactly filled with happy memories."

It seemed that her temper had somewhat cooled down because of Haruaki's honest words. She was at a loss for words and turned her face down.

"I... hate that appearance. I wouldn't want to turn into that form unless its absolutely necessary. Someone told me coming here would be easier with that form. So, I had no choice but to give up..."

"Who told you? My old man?"

"He said his name was Honatsu... Are you his son?"

"Yeah. And my name's Haruaki. How's my old man doing?"

"I don't know. He said that he still had something to do over there."

"As much of a free man as usual, I see. Geez, I'm tired of complaining about him though. As long as he keeps sending money for my living, I'll keep up with his game."

"I don't understand you two... I mean, you and your father. I thought an ordinary man wouldn't try to understand the likes of me."

"We've been receiving cursed tools like you since I was a kid. Usually, tools that we accept are those with a slight curse in it, but there are rare occasions where a tool who
can assume human form like you comes here for help."

After a brief silence, Fear let out a sigh and placed down the fork she was holding. Her serious gaze pierced Haruaki as she looked up, her silver hair swaying slightly.

"I'm going to say something serious."

"...Go ahead."

"I... I was placed in some dark dungeon, thrown away long ago by my last owner. Yachi Honatsu came one day and found me. He tried to talk to me, and I told him my wish."

"A wish?"

Haruaki already had an idea what her wish was. But, cursed tools who came here with their own will were often the ones who needed to confirm the purpose of their existence
by putting them into words. Knowing that, he chose to let her say it out loud from her own mouth.

The girl who was not human answered in a whisper, biting her lips softly,

"I want to free myself from my curse."





"How much do you know...? About the curse, and about tools like me?"

"Well, here's what I know; First, a tool changes its quality in a negative way if it continues to receive negative thoughts.
Second, a tool that receives negative thoughts often affects the owner and the people around it.
And third, in exchange with the negative effect it brings upon the people around it, it may show a mysterious charm and function..."

"Is that all?"

Haruaki narrowed his eyes and looked at Fear, who was speaking with her eyes looking down at the table.

"To add one more, I know that after receiving all the negative thoughts and curses from humans, an item would become... something that's in front of me right now."

Yes. A tool which received too much grudge from humans will earn a human quality----

Haruaki didn't know the specific details, but he knew that an item gains a personal thought which affects its essence as a tool. It was a result of receiving grudges from people
over and over again. In the end, they'll possess their own mind, soul, and an ability to change forms with its own will.

"That's right. It started with a single grudge. I was made to harm people and because of it, I had received much hatred, grievances, and murderous intents. From those grudges,
I was branded with the abominable curse of [driving my owner into insanity.]"

Haruaki noticed that the girl was gripping her hands tightly. He thought it was better not to ask more about her about concrete details of the tool that she was and
about what she meant by driving her owner into insanity.

"My curse doesn't end there. The grudge I received gave me [human qualities] and my own will. To me, who was nothing but a tool in the beginning. Let me correct myself, I was not given those capabilities; I was forced to have those capabilities. Have you ever thought about how bad the affinity between a will and a curse was? I envy those tools which only have a slight curse. They won't realize by themselves that they were burdened by a curse. How fortunate it is to be blessed with ignorance!"

For a moment, she took a deep breath.

"I came here believing in Honatsu's words that I can free my curse here in this place. That's the reason why I came, but I was not told about the details of what I have to do. Tell me
honestly---- Will I, will I be able to lift the curse from myself without affecting the people around me? Remember that Honatsu sent me to you, so that makes you my current owner. If you're
just lying about here being a place to free one's self from a curse, you would be the first to receive the harmful effects that come with it."

Her eyes looked straight into his. But those eyes reflected undeniable fright and doubt.
That was why Haruaki simply told her,

"Yes, you can."

"...Huh?"

"I said you can free yourself from your curse here. You see, I don't have strong spiritual sense or special ability like my father, but it seems that I have a unique body constitution which
repels curses, which makes me unaffected by them. So, whatever your curse is, it doesn't work on me. Hahaha! Fear me, you violent little girl!"

"What the...?! Wait, you said that I could lift my curse here, but how?"

"I'm not sure about the details, but this place has been a very pure land for a long time, and the area where this house was built was the center of the pure energy that comes from the land.
That's why just being here would fill you with positive energy. They say that this place is protected by some kind of force field, though the rate of cleansing is kinda slow. Just leaving the tools here would eventually lift the curse."

Haruaki remembered the woman who set the force field around the house. Her outfit caught many eyes, and she said that the force field would last for the next hundred years. He supposed that
there won't be a chance to see her again, if the force field would really last that long.

"And, there's another way of lifting a curse. The mechanic is simple; if a curse comes from negative thoughts, you just have to receive positive thoughts by helping people around you. If you keep on
receiving them, the curse will be neutralized eventually."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean to say that you have to vaguely perform acts that people will be thankful for, I suppose. You just have to live here and work as a part-timer or volunteer for public events... I think?"

"W-Wait, why was there a question mark in the end?"

Fear leaned forward, which sent the mackerel bits flying at Haruaki's face. He wondered if Fear did that on purpose.

"Well, it's not as if I've actually tried lifting a curse from myself. That was just what I've heard."

She puffed out her cheeks like a child, making a sullen expression.

"I can't believe it... I mean, I don't think that simply sleeping or working here would lift the curse. Besides, I doubt that my curse could be lifted in a leisurely phase..."

"You're right about going leisurely. Being able to assume human form would mean that many curses have been gathered in your body, so it would take years to free yourself. I don't know any
other ways of lifting a curse, so maybe you'll just have to be patient about it."

"Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I still can't believe it."

"Don't worry so much about it. Even if you can't believe for----"

Ding dong. The door bell rung suddenly. Fear seemed to be frightened by it, so Haruaki told her that it was just a bell that said there was a visitor. He stood up and pointed at the table.

"The food will get cold, so eat it now. Especially the mackerel pike."