Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume1 Chapter5 (section)

===Part 8===

Completely unexpected. This forbidden existence. Blood. Blood. Blood. Impulse. Terror. Desire. Trembling. Palpitation. Madness.

(Don't go mad. Kirika... Kirika! I won't go mad! Endure! Unforgivable! I'm going to slaughter this woman! Calm down! I have to kill her! I can't bear this, I'll save her once I defeat this woman, she definitely can be saved! I'm going to kill her! So stop going mad!)

She felt her consciousness eroding. The stress and discomfort of the moment was nauseating. Feeling herself weak at the waist, she watched as Peavey rushed towards her with axe in hand. She was going to be killed if she continued to stand there in shock!

Fear stumbled backwards. Manipulating the head of the iron maiden, she deflected the blade of the attacking axe, then she tried to distance herself—but tripped, falling on her bottom.

"Hahaha—! How unsightly! Stand up and fight!"

(Unsightliness is fine, not fighting is fine too!)

Fear closed her eyes as she endured. The smell of blood wafted into her nostrils. This too, needed to be endured.

(My mission is to not go mad—)

Because he believed in me.

He believed I will stay sane to the bitter end. That was why he came up with such a dangerous plan—he had suggested a plan that meant instant death for himself with any misstep.

That's right, I wish to change from the cube I've been up to this point.

I want to become an ordinary human.

I must believe so—



Fear saw that Peavey was just about to brush past the iron maiden that had stopped moving.

Now was her chance.

The world was tilted in her vision as if she were drunk. Fear lightly traced her fingers along the chain of cubes wrapped around her right hand, opening the iron maiden's cover. At least opening the cover was within her ability. Then—

From within the iron maiden that had remained shut until now, out jumped Haruaki.

"...!"

Peavey stared wide in surprise.

From her eyes it was apparent she finally understood why Fear did not use the iron maiden to fight. But it was too late.

At this extremely close distance, she was completely caught unprepared. She had already committed herself towards an attack pose.

The natural result from all of these elements was embodied by the word "unavoidable."

In that very instant, Haruaki rushed at Peavey with the Japanese sword in hand, accompanied with rage—



—Based on the discussion in Konoha's room, they had already decided what they were going to do. Deprive her of that axe. In order to achieve this goal, they needed to split up roles of offense and defense. Given the circumstances, the distribution of roles was decided automatically—the person who could swing a sword, but could not take any attacks, was only suited to offense after all. But since the enemy was aware of this, she would target him first on sight. Hence there was only one solution.

A surprise attack from a location that the enemy could not attack even if they wanted to.

The only remaining challenge was finding such a place.

Fear felt a liberating sense of accomplishment. She no longer had to endure—just as she thought that to herself, the unnatural state she was desperately maintaining returned to normal—the spikes in the interior of the iron maiden she had been holding back shot out all at once.

(Seriously, coming up with this sort of plan... Indeed, the enemy cannot attack this place, plus the fact it was possible to launch an surprise attack at an extremely close distance without being detected, making it a perfect hiding place. Other than the fact that a single lapse in my concentration would result in a tragic death...!)

Naturally, maintaining a torture device in such a halfway state was something she had never tried or even imagined. But she did it. Because others placed their faith in her, she was able to do it.

Succeeding in avoiding killing Haruaki by accident, Fear felt relieved from the bottom of her heart.

She had done everything she could. Now she only needed to await the result.

Staring at the axe blade which continued to approach her head from above, that was the thought crossing her mind.