Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume4 Epilogue (section)

===Part 4===

"Phew... Somehow it feels as though their positions have been reversed from before..."

Escaping Konoha's room, Haruaki sighed. Seriously, after all the time they have spent together, those two girls still could not get along properly... Or should that be attributed to their being close? Thinking over such matters, Haruaki decided to seek sanctuary in a quiet place first.

Taking a cleaning cloth and a feather duster with him, Haruaki entered the secondary residence in the garden. His destination was neither Kuroe's bedroom on the second floor nor Konoha's former room, but the storeroom that took up the entire ground floor. After all, there were things to be done so he might as well clean the storeroom along the way. Taking out his key, he rolled up the metal shutter and entered the secondary residence's ground floor which only had a floor of bare concrete.  The icy cold air blew against his skin.

Inside were all sorts of objects waiting for their curses to be lifted. Dolls lined up on shelves, masks hanging on hooks in the wall, pieces of armor lying randomly on the floor... These were all collected by Haruaki's father or sent here without consent by people who had heard of the rumors. Almost all of them lacked special powers and most of them were only lightly cursed. Among them, there were even articles that were kept here simply because they were not needed in the Yachi residence.

Deciding to save the most important task for the last, Haruaki started to clean the storeroom's items using the feather duster. Particles of scattered dust glittered under the sunlight streaming in through the entrance. From time to time, Haruaki found the trapdoor to the basement obstructing his footsteps, but slowly, he circled and inspected the entire storeroom. Anyway, let's leave it at that.

"Okay..."

Taking the cloth to replace the feather duster, he went over to the lowest level of a sturdy rack that seemed like it would remain fine in an earthquake and cautiously took out a certain item kept there.

An indigo-colored pot.

It was broken. Although the largest fragments had been carefully glued back, there were still a number of holes that he could not do anything about. Those parts were wrapped in cloth&mdash;"Just keep it wrapped for now. I have no idea if it will help, but at least it's better than nothing." Hence, the pot was wrapped in bandages containing Kuroe's hair.

The sensation of ceramic felt cold to the touch.

Impossible to compare with body temperature, an object's intrinsic temperature.

Haruaki squinted his eyes and sat down on the storeroom floor, holding the cloth he had brought and carefully wiping the pot. Touching an unnatural depression in the bottom of the interior, the sensation reminded him of the device that was buried in this spot.

They had discovered the device back when they were pulling the knife out of the pot. The knife's tip was embedded into the device, an object that resembled a remote control at first glance. Recalling after the fact, this device felt even more complicated than the one that was installed on Peavey's Dance Time. Like that other device, this one also contained an Indulgence Disk&mdash;Although Haruaki was hesitant at first, but seeing as the device itself was already destroyed completely, he finally inserted the Indulgence Disk into Fear, resulting in the «Judas Cradle»'s sealing. Furthermore, if Aiko reawakened, her owner would be Haruaki and reducing the curse's effects was no longer a concern.

...If Aiko reawakened.

Biting his lower lip, Haruaki wiped harder.

In the end, they did not manage to catch Bivorio who had thrown the knife. Even though she was clearly injured and was tied up by Kuroe's hair, she still managed to disappear from the school building somehow. After that, they had immediately called Zenon and asked her to search around, but in vain. The only possibilities they could think of were the following: Kuroe's hair, which was used to bind her, had lost their stiffness earlier than expected (Kuroe herself could not deny this possibility), or maybe Kururi, who was similarly missing, could have done something, or something completely unimaginable had happened.

In the end, the only certainty was that the Family's symbol, Abyss, was completely destroyed. The Family's power and influence was undoubtedly diminished, but ignoring that for now, there were still many things to be concerned about.

"Who knows what will happen&mdash;Whatever, it's not like we can do anything proactive on our side, so it's useless to worry."

As if convincing himself, Haruaki muttered. At this moment, he realized he was using too much force to wipe the pot. Smiling wryly, he applied less strength and gently, gently, he caressed her skin once more.

"But by the way... That dance was quite astounding, right? In all sorts of ways."

Haruaki was speaking to the pot that could not answer. But anyway, she was listening, so this was fine. This was not talking to oneself.

It was truly astounding. Because Fear and Konoha's clothes were splattered with mud, they had rinsed themselves using tap water as an emergency measure. The mud was no longer conspicuous, but instead&mdash;The wet clothing, drenched by the rain, became even more wet, in other words&mdash;

In all sorts of ways, they were toeing the line.

In that precarious state, the instant Fear and Konoha made their appearance on stage, all the male students cheered almost as though they were screaming.

"Seriously, Fear seems to have created a new legend. Or rather, it's Konoha's legend? Class Rep was also groaning with a solemn expression, saying the dance might be cancelled next year&mdash;Even if they don't cancel it, the costumes will probably be regulated."

Although it was impossible to tell if it was owing to the legend the girls started, the end result was that the white team's dance had obtained a decisive high score, thereby bringing overall victory to the white team. One could say that the white team's victory was thanks to those two.

Blowing air towards the pot, Haruaki reminisced. He recalled the dance as well as Fear and Konoha's expressions. Still holding the broken pot, he had hid in a dark corner of the school building. In other words, he was watching the dance from a slightly further location&mdash;But thinking to himself, he concluded that he probably could not forget those two girls' expressions for the rest of his life.

"...!"

"...!? ...!"

At this moment, more noise from the two girls' dispute could be heard. Haruaki shrugged and his hand that was wiping the pot also shook.

"Seriously... This home is really getting noisy, huh? How troubling."

Indeed, it was really troubling. However&mdash;

He did not dislike it.

It was not a bad thing.

"However... It's fine for this home to be like this. Ahhh jeez, it's really wonderful to be able to remember everything. So that's why I'm able to say this. This noise and bustle is this home's normal state. That's the way things have become."

Raising the pot lightly, he caressed the pot's mouth with his fingertips.

As if whispering in her ear, he spoke to the interior of the pot:

"&mdash;It's fine for this home to be like this. When Kuroe is around, it gets even noisier. ''But if there were one more person, it'd be even better''. So, we welcome your return at any time."

These words were sucked into the pot.

No response.

Neither "Hweh~" nor "Pwah~"&mdash;There was no response.

"...!"

Just as Haruaki was about to cry, a patter of footsteps approached the storeroom. Hastily, he wiped his face with the cloth and turned his head.

"Haruaki, Haruaki~!"

"Hmm~ What's the matter? Have you two stopped arguing?"

"W-We weren't arguing. I guess you can call it a simulated battle or a clash in ideologies... Something like that&mdash;Ah..."

Running over, Fear stopped. Slowly, she entered the storeroom and knelt down beside Haruaki.

"You're wiping her clean?"

"Yeah."

A brief moment of silence.

Fear watched his hand with a gentle gaze as Haruaki wiped the pot's curves, finally murmuring:

"Those places on Aiko's body that bulge out, I guess it's obvious where on the human body they correspond to, right? To think you'd stroke those parts so obsessively... You shameless brat."

"D-Don't go saying such weird things!"

Giggle&mdash;Fear chuckled. Slowly, she stood up and said to the pot:

"Aiko, if you don't like being touched, you gotta speak up to protest! Otherwise, this shameless brat will keep touching your bulging parts. So&mdash;So hurry and wake up!"

But of course, there was no answer.

Fear's gaze wavered in loneliness.

"..."

Haruaki finished wiping and gently returned the pot to the rack. Giving a final pat on the pot's mouth with his palm, he stood up. Then he also did the same to Fear. Pat pat.

"Muu... Don't treat me like a child. I'll curse you!"

"Yes~ yes, then do you have any business? You came to get me for something, right?"

"Oh yeah. Shamelessness aside, how should I put this... Ear cleaning feels quite comfortable, right? It's not fair that only Cow Tits gets to enjoy a moment of healing. I'm tired too, so you should help me do the same thing."

"What do you mean, I should... What's with that twisted logic of yours?"

"Shut up, I'll help clean your ears in return, okay."

"Let me express 'thanks, but no thanks' with my whole mind and soul. I have yet to mentally prepare myself for the possibility of getting my brain gouged out. Besides, I only helped her do it because of that 'comply with any request no matter what' certificate&mdash;"

"You mean this?"

"Wait... How come you have one too? So you girls only conspire together on things like this?"

"Of course not, I snatched this."

"Ooh... Damn it, I knew I should have torn it up at the first opportunity...!"

While conversing, Haruaki and Fear exited the door. As they pulled down the metal shutter, the pair naturally cast a glance into the storeroom and said in unison&mdash;

"Well then... See you later, Aiko."

Not a farewell.

But a quiet promise to meet again.



&mdash;After the metal shutter descended, peace and quiet returned to the storeroom.

A space without any person.

A domain containing tools that could not speak.

A dead world filled with silence and chilly air.

Even so&mdash;

Weakly, weakly...

Only once, there came a sound&mdash;


&mdash;Clonk.


&mdash;The sound of something that had shook.

Then a long silence began in the storeroom again.

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