Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 7===

Hoho. Hohoho. Fear laughed.

Raindrops finally began to fall. Standing in the rain, she looked quite delighted.

"Fear... Is that really... Fear?"

Haruaki was confused, but no one could answer his question. The instant blood spurted out from the loss of Peavey's single arm, Konoha lost consciousness.

Fear stealing rice-crackers to eat, Fear throwing a tantrum at home, Fear happily attending school. Those facial expressions compared to the current smiling face of Fear—clearly they were the same face, but different at the same time.

"Ahhhhh... Ahhhhhhhhhh..."

With residual piteous cries, the collapsed Peavey started to move. Muttering "Damn it! Damn it!" as she righted her upper torso, she knelt as she attempted to stand up—suddenly a great amount of blood spurted from her severed shoulder, causing her to lose balance, drained of strength. Flailing her remaining arm, the massive fist struck the floor, she created new depressions as she tried to support her body that was toppling forward.

Supporting herself like a three-legged beast, Peavey raised her head. Her blonde hair obscured her eyes and virtually all of her facial expression. Nevertheless, Haruaki could still see her bloodless lips moving. Rather than screaming angrily—

She smiled.

"How dare you... How dare you rape and humiliate me?"

A chilling voice. It sounded very calm. Too calm. The tone of mockery she bore up to this point was no longer present in her laughter.

Simply... Pure laughter.

Precisely due to that, it felt even more terrifying.

She had abandoned something decisively—that was what Haruaki felt. This was this woman's limit.

Suddenly, even the smile disappeared from Peavey's face leaving her completely expressionless. She started moving once more, withdrawing her hand from the floor, blood spewing as she stood up.

"Appalling... The worst... Humiliated by... Trash... Utterly appalling..."

Only quiet mutters came continually from her lips. These words carried no emotion. Neither did those obscured eyes nor her pallid face show any emotion.

Perhaps due to the difficulty of balancing with one arm or the effects of inner turmoil, she swayed with great instability. The pale ghost with blood gushing from her shoulder—or rather, the "Balancing Toy."

Even her mutters were shaking unsteadily, nonstop.

"...I'm going to kill you, destroy you, and then violate you. Happily I will torture you to death... You are just a tool... Rusted..."

Clack! —The sound of high heels. Expressionless, the balancing toy began to walk. Her footsteps unsteady. Even so, that abnormal existence was approaching Haruaki's group step by step, muttering to herself. The sight reminded one of a poorly made horror film, presenting an unbelievable and terrifying scene.

But just as Peavey advanced a couple of steps—

A long slender strip of fabric, resembling a bandage, extended from below the school building onto the roof.

Due to its great length, only the front end was in view. The source was probably on a lower floor or on the ground. The cloth strip moved as if alive, wrapping itself around Peavey's waist, instantly lifting her body into the air. Surprised, Peavey tried to resist but due to her injuries she could only fruitlessly wave her legs.

"—!"

Then Peavey was taken away by the strip of cloth, disappearing over the railing—vanishing into the increasingly heavy rain.

Only silence remained. Silence synonymous to the sound of rain. Destruction's wake was colored garnet as if rendered as a watercolor painting.

Watching in a daze for seconds, Haruaki finally registered these surrounding elements as peace.

The enemy had left.

"Wha... What...?"

No response. Neither the cracks on the roof nor the twisted railing gave any answer. Totally beyond comprehension.

(However... At least the enemy was repelled...)

He relaxed his shoulders. The muscles of his entire body had tensed severely due to rushing in to battle without any warmup exercises.

The rain gradually increased.

His drenched uniform was becoming heavy, the fabric clinging to his arms. Only at this moment did he remember his painful wound. At the last moment, Konoha had shifted her body, thereby managing to avoid damage to bones or nerves. Nevertheless, a wound was a wound.

Hoping for the rainwater to wash away the bloodstains, Haruaki sighed.

However—he heard an unbelievable voice at this moment.

"...Mechanism No.8 breaking type, circular figure: 'Francs' Breaking Wheel'—Curse Calling!"

He instinctively shuddered and held Muramasa forward before him without thought. Thanks to his natural reflexes, the sword blocked the attack successfully.

It had blocked the attack Fear made against Haruaki.

The wheel and the sword resisted each other. Fear appeared before Haruaki with empty eyes, holding the edge of the torture tool. Giggles escaped her mouth as her gentle exhalation reached Haruaki's lips.

"Screams... I want to hear screams. I... was created for this purpose. I... that..."

"Come back to your senses! It's finished, the enemy has escaped! Fear!"

What astounding strength. Pushing the wheel hard, she gradually drew near. Haruaki desperately resisted. This caused sharp pain to flare up from his arm injury, making him lose strength. I'm going to be crushed! Just as he trembled from the thought—

"...You! What on earth are you doing?"

A terrifying roar came from the sword as it robbed Haruaki's arms of his control. At the same time as deflecting the wheel, Konoha's black scabbard struck Fear and sent her flying.

Lying on the concrete, completely drenched by rainwater, Fear remained motionless for a quite a while. After a few seconds passed, the chain of cubes extending from her hand vanished while the torture tool connected the chain returned to its original form as a Rubik's cube.

"Aha... Ahahaha..."

Her laughter sounded slightly convulsive, but Haruaki knew. Fear had returned.

Slowly, she got up. Quietly restraining herself, her drenched hair sticking to her cheeks as she stood in the same spot with a blank expression. Suddenly she raised her arm:

"...Rain? This is also a first. Really... So it turns out to be this cold. Haha, with this, my body—as well as my face, isn't everything all wet now...?"

As always, she seemed to be trying to hide something and muddle through. But she could not possibly muddle through this time. Haruaki was just about to lecture her in vexation when she spoke out first:

"...Do you understand now? You wanted to know my true nature, so this is it."

Her back turned to Haruaki, her voice sounded rather delicate and sad.

"Haruaki. How will you treat me now? That woman is completely correct. I've murdered hundreds, and I was created for the purpose of killing in this manner. Because of that, these hands and this self is cursed. Repeatedly cursed. But ironically, I finally obtained human consciousness as a result of endless curses, only to realize the concept of guilt."

"...A common thing."

"A common thing? Ha, really? I am self-aware. Speaking of guilt, I feel like I am the worst and most abysmal tool. Ah yes, right, Haruaki, I was really relieved to learn about your constitution. Immunity to the curses of cursed tools—that had been my greatest fear before coming here. I did mention, right? My curse is simply 'a common thing'... It causes the owner to go mad, compelled to use me without any self-restraint. No matter how virtuous or noble, as long as I come into their possession, they all become like my first owner... Like that murderous maniac of a castle lord. Using me to seek pleasure, interrogating and torturing others... An existence of this sort, what else could you call it other than irredeemably sinful?"

"Hence—I said there's no problem! This doesn't matter, right? Because it doesn't affect me! Since this is a matter of constitution, it won't change in the future, so you can rest assured!"

Haruaki tried to sound as cheerful as possible, but Fear shook her head in disagreement.

"No. Recalling the past, recalling that I am still me—I have realized the most fundamental problem. I strove to pursue hopes and dreams, but never did I think about how stupid it was. I tried to forget, to pretend things never happened. But clearly it's impossible!"

"Fear, calm down! What are you talking about?"

In response to this question, more questions were raised in quick succession:

"I am guilty. Guilty of murdering too many people. Which is why I am cursed with guilt. So what about punishment? What should the punishment be?"

Everyone was silent for a moment. Only the pitter-patter of rain could be heard, singing a noisy song.

Fear quietly turned her head, orienting her dripping wet face towards Haruaki—asking in a trembling voice:

"Hey... For me, is finding absolution possible? The curse this body suffers from... Will I be able to forget it?"

Haruaki was silent. Because there was no need to answer, he had no obligation to answer, he did not want to answer, and furthermore, it was a question with no answer. He knew it was underhanded of him to do this, but he still offered a smile as an answer.

"Let's go home, it's too cold here."

The underhanded plea did not reach her heart. Because she was too clever.

Looking rather happy, but also very lonely—Fear also returned a smile.

"This answer is so gentle... So very gentle, but it's the worst."

Once again, she turned around and stepped forward, murmuring extremely quietly as if to herself:

"I was very happy. The rice-crackers were very tasty. By the way, this school, this home, all treated me so kindly... But in the end, I don't belong here."

"Wait... Fear! Wait a minute, you—!"

Haruaki reached out towards the hand that could not be reached, but even then she did not look back.

"...What happened just now has steeled my determination. By now, I almost added another unforgivable crime to my repertoire. Rather than having things this way—it's better for me to sleep alone the way I was until recently. So I must go. I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused you."

The drenched silver hair jumped up high.

Fear went over the railing, disappearing into the rain.