Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume10 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 1===

That night, a visitor arrived at the Yachi residence. Although it was visitor whom Kirika particularly did not want to see, he was impossible to refuse given the circumstances.

Sitting cross-legged on the tatami floor, Himura swept his gaze over everyone.

"...You were defeated?"

"We weren't defeated. That girl ran away."

Fear grumbled while scowling to an unprecedented extent, sipping tea from the table, probably with poultice currently applied to her flank. Although her injuries would heal automatically even if untreated, at least this provided some effect of comfort, offering an impression it would heal faster. The same point applied to Konoha and Kuroe as well. Furthermore, Konoha's arm, which had been pierced by Elsie's fingers, was still bandaged&mdash;naturally, Kuroe's hair with life force imbued for treatment was also used.

Only Kirika, who had suffered a fatal attack, looked the same as usual. At this moment, she was narrowing her eyes anxiously and asking:

"Himura, hurry and spit out everything you know."

"Of course, I came with that intent in mind. Although I didn't make it in time for your first contact, it shouldn't be too late if I tell you now. The enemy is Hinai Elsie&mdash;one of the Knights mainstays, also known as the «Strongest»... But this only applies under a certain condition. There's probably no more than a handful who can fight her head on, such as those on the level of the Dominion Lord or the Draconian's No.1, the Commander. As for the Lab Chief's Nation, there's only Un Izoey at best, but most likely, even she cannot prevail."

"Indeed, that child can probably be considered the strongest class as a human. But Hinai Elsie is completely beyond human, possessing speed and strength surpassing a human body's limits, even I could not match up to her&mdash;Ahhh, how absolutely infuriating! ...Cough, in any case, I don't believe that humans are capable of handling an opponent like her."

Presumably recalling the earlier situation, Konoha feigned calmness but could not disguise her anxiety.

"Hold on, let's forget about the country girl for now."

"Hmm, you said something curious just now. What do you mean by 'under a certain condition'?"

As a matter of courtesy, they had served tea to Himura but he did not touch his drink at all. Fear's question prompted him to nod.

"This condition is very simple, namely, the duration for which the Wathe in her possession produces an active effect. Conversely speaking&mdash;In other words, the Wathe that girl owns, the Shamrock's Experimental Timer «Clockwork Life», has a time limit."

"Time limit?"

Haruaki repeated those words verbatim. Himura replied in a torrent:

"Due to her strength, she is quite well-known in the business&mdash;Hence, I was able to gather a wealth of information regarding her Wathe. Although it's unknown what principles guided «Clockwork Life»'s creation, it seems to be a Wathe that compressed the user's time. One second for us is X seconds for her, where X is greater than one, which is what allows her to move X times faster than us. Her unusual strength and physical durability also stem from the same principle. Suppose X equals two, then during one second for us, the 'her from the 1st second' and the 'her from the 2nd second' are superimposed, resulting in a compressed state of strengthened existence..."

"I am not part of the Lab Chief's Nation, so I have no interest in theories. Absolutely ridiculous."

Kirika interrupted mercilessly, causing Himura to shut up immediately and shrug.

"...Sorry, I wasn't paying attention and..."

"Kirika is right, these complicated theories don't matter. The real question is what means are there to handle her&mdash;Since that Wathe has a time limit, that's what we should target, right? Specifically, what is the time limit?"

"Roughly four minutes. That's why people call her the Tiny Extermination Zone&mdash;«Four Minutes»."

Haruaki suddenly felt that something was not quite right. Last evening's battle in the park had ended almost within the blink of an eye. Naturally, he had not timed accurately, but based on feeling&mdash;

"Last time, it didn't seem like it reached four minutes... I'm not too certain, but it only felt like two minutes."

"In other words, the maximum is four minutes. The ability is activated by winding the watch stem of the pocket watch. Depending on the number of turns, the time limit can be shorter that four minutes, it seems."

Why had Elsie not delivered a final deathblow to them at the time? Haruaki could now understand to some extent&mdash;Because the time limit had arrived. Since Fear still exhibited the will to fight, she decided to retreat. However&mdash;

"In that case, can't she just turn the watch stem again? But then again, there's no need to be stingy, so why wouldn't she wind up four minutes in the first place?"

"An excellent question, a hundred marks. It seems that «Clockwork Life» can't be used at will&mdash;In other words, the watch stem cannot be turned at all times. After all, it's a Wathe with a powerful cursed ability. Hence, I've heard that it needs to first store up something akin to energy in order to activate its power. Considering that the Wathe can only produce four minutes of activation time at most, in other words, it should be alright to say that time must be stored up. That said, it is still unknown how time is stored up specifically."

"I see... Today it happens that she only had enough energy for two minutes. She made her move thinking that it was enough, but it didn't work out in the end, so she escaped."

Konoha murmured in deep thought, then continued:

"In any case, I basically understand. In the end, it looks like the key is how to prevent that pocket watch from activating its power. The effective method is to prevent her from accumulating time&mdash;even though it's currently unclear how the act of storing up time is done&mdash;prevent her from storing energy. Even if she could activate the cursed power, the shorter the duration, the more advantageous it would be to our side."

"Yes, that girl is completely no threat as long as she's not using the pocket watch's power. Judging from way she looks normally, she seems quite sluggish."

"But how exactly does she store up time? That's the question..."

"Oh, I don't know if it's related or not... But at the end, that girl asked me a question. Something like whether this part of town was the busiest or not? When I told her she was right, she said that as expected, she needed to do something in this town."

"Done in this town... In other words, she might be talking about storing up time while in this town. At least it's better than some other place she might not be able to find. Once we find out what she intends to do, we should be able to stop her, but..."

Kirika lowered her voice in a daunted manner. Similarly, everyone was frowning, daunted.

They had only cleared up what direction the matter should take, but in terms of concrete action, they were still at a total loss.

Honestly speaking, it was quite unsettling.

While they were stuck here worrying, perhaps Elsie was currently storing up time, maybe even accumulating enough energy to use the whole four minutes, then possibly reappearing tomorrow. If that were the case, what were they going to do? Haruaki was unable to help at all. Simply in half an instant, he would be beaten up and neutralized like Fear and the others.

The girls were probably thinking about this matter.

Stopping the enemy from storing any time at all was very likely an impossible task. Since Elsie was able to compress time, were they going to be able to defeat her in the next fight? How much time could they stall for? Everyone was probably pondering this question, whether Fear who had lost consciousness from merely a single attack, Konoha who was injured, Kuroe who was tossed away like an ordinary doll, or Kirika who had nearly died for real&mdash;

(Damn it...)

Haruaki quietly clenched his fist on his lap. He gnashed his teeth at his lack of power. As usual, perhaps even more poignant than before, he was unable to do anything.

An intensely gloomy silence occupied the Yachi residence's living room. Everyone looked down while their thoughts were shrouded beneath a dark future as they struggled with internal unease.

Just at this moment, Haruaki suddenly noticed someone squirming beside him, so he looked up.

It was Amanda, still expressionless as usual. Although one could call it squirming, it was actually more like shaking her shoulders slightly. Recently, this started happening on occasion. Amanda was using her body to say something, a signal she sent out with everything she had. Although it was only vaguely in truth, but over the past few days, Haruaki was beginning to understand what she was trying to express.

"You'd like... a drink of water? Here..."

Haruaki picked up a cup of water on the table. Bringing it to her lips, he slowly tilted it. Gulping sounds came from Amanda's throat, more impatiently than before. It looked like she really was thirsty as suspected.

Haruaki relaxed his expression slightly and looked straight into Amanda's face. She was still alive, alive beyond a doubt. However&mdash;Elsie was currently trying to terminate her life.

Despite feeling unsettled, nothing was going to change.

Thinking was imperative, action was imperative. Protecting her life was imperative, she who had ended up this way because of them.

Amanda's visible efforts to live on succeeded in slightly relieving the heavy atmosphere in the living room. As though waiting for the right timing, Himura slowly got up. He had already stood up and started walking by the time Haruaki noticed he was moving. Indeed, his sense of presence was quite weak.

"It's about time for me to take my leave."

As the master of the house, Haruaki felt obliged by etiquette to see him to the door. Fear and the girls also went to see him off. The last to stand up from the tatami floor was the scowling Kirika, as expected.

While putting on his shoes at the entrance, Himura turned his head to glance towards Haruaki's group and said:

"I forgot to ask something important. Although you probably didn't have any spare effort to notice, I'll still try asking. Did she look like she was carrying the 'mind-healing Wathe' I mentioned before?"

Right, there was that as well. A method that could save Amanda&mdash;but at the same time, worryingly, it was a cursed method as well.

"We did not try to confirm. Just as you said, there was no effort to spare either."

"Because in just one hit, you ended up defeated and laid out on the ground."

"W-What are you talking about!? That was... Umm... That was just because I was careless for a moment!"

"Whatever, let's put that aside for now&mdash;I wasn't able to confirm at the time either, but I felt like there was something strange about the way she looked. Despite being a member of the Knights Dominion, she was able to converse normally... Neither did she show any of Peavey's brand of insanity involving repeated screams of 'Destroy! Destroy!' But definitely for sure, she's a weird girl."

"I see. Then it could very well be the result of the mind-healing Wathe's power."

Himura nodded in comprehension, stood up and reached for the front door.

"Since the enemy is challenging, asking you to seize the Wathe would probably be an unreasonable request, but I hope you could bear it in mind slightly. Although you are not obliged to do so, please be careful not to break that Wathe with excessively powerful attacks."

"Hmph. Although I can't promise you anything, we'll be more careful."

"Anyway, that's it for now. Okay, next, I intend to devote full effort to investigating that girl's whereabouts and how she 'stores up time.' I will contact you as soon as I have news."

As though it were the most natural thing in the world, Himura explained sincerely what he had to do. Although Kirika had warned against Himura, Haruaki felt that Himura had been taking action responsibly to help Amanda and them. Gathering information carried its own risks&mdash;Haruaki felt compelled to say something about that at least. But before Haruaki could express any words of worry or gratitude, Himura had already opened the door and stepped outside. Haruaki really did not notice when he had opened the door.

Himura's sense of presence was as ill-defined as a ghost's just as he was about to vanish into the darkness. Literally, he was about to vanish into the darkness indeed. Presumably, Haruaki was not the only one feeling unsettled by his appearance.

"&mdash;Himura."

Kirika called out to him, but she did not continue. Her wavering gaze seemed to be regretting calling to him. She also seemed to be at a loss how to proceed, remaining silent. Himura simply looked back, the corners of his lips curling up slightly.

"Allow me to presumptuously assume you're telling me to take care. I'm not going to force myself too far. Also&mdash;I probably won't disappear."

Kirika did not respond. Himura did not say anything more.

Then once again, by the time Haruaki noticed all of a sudden, his figure had already vanished without trace.