Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume3 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 1===

In any case, it would be best to talk things out once everyone had calmed down&mdash;Deciding that, Haruaki prepared dinner.

"Okay... Before we start the meal, something needs to be done first."

Haruaki glanced at the dishes arranged on the dining table and spoke. Fear continued to hug her knees, glaring at Kuroe, whining "ooh~ooh~" with displeasure. On the other hand, Kuroe, whose physique was even more petite than Fear's, was sitting on a cushion, accepting Fear's gaze nonchalantly with a blank stare on her child-like face. Concealed in her long sleeves, her arms were crossed before her chest. This imperturbable presence of mind was inexplicably reminiscent of Chinese royalty... Except for the fact that she was using her hair to surreptitiously operate a hand-held gaming device under the table.

Hearing Haruaki speak, Kuroe sat up properly&mdash;In other words, she shut off the gaming device. Then she suddenly extended three fingers each from both hands and bowed her head towards Fear while speaking softly:

"My name is Ningyouhara Kuroe. This unworthy little little lady shall humbly place herself in your continued care."

"Why are you using a bride's marriage greeting?"

"And with one mention of 'little' too many."

Haruaki and Konoha ridiculed simultaneously. "Really?" Kuroe looked up and cocked her head doubtfully. With a face full of displeasure, Fear said:

"Kuroe huh... Hmph, I seem to recall hearing that name before somewhere. So you're the one who lives in the room adjacent to Cow Tits'? Hearing your name, I originally thought you had to be a picture or something like that."<ref>'''Picture''': the name Kuroe(黑繪) consists of the kanji ''kuro''(黑), meaning black, and ''e''(繪), meaning picture or drawing.</ref>

"Exactly as my family name suggests, I am a Japanese doll. By the way, the reason why I chose the kanji 'e' as part of my name is because I wanted to give others an impression as pretty as a picture."

"Please don't shamelessly reveal this kind of thing yourself!"

Haruaki reflexively ridiculed a second time. As always, Kuroe's behavior was completely impossible to read.

"Seriously... Whatever, in any case, that's the kind of impression she gives others. One of those 'Japanese dolls whose hair lengthens' that you often hear about. Come on, Fear, could you introduce yourself at least?"

"Hmph. Fear&mdash;Fear Cubrick. There."

"Yes. And?"

"..." "..."

Kuroe turned her face towards Haruaki, expressionless.

"Say, Haru, am I being disliked?"

"How could you possibly think you weren't being disliked&mdash;!?"

Before Haruaki could answer, Fear's burning flames of wrath erupted.

"Think carefully about what you did to me! Not only did you suddenly entangle me like that, you even targeted this and that kind of spot with shameless tickling attacks...! B-Besides, you even let Haruaki witness... Witness me looking like that! I demand lots of apologies and compensation!"

"Truly sorry about that. But when I come home and the first thing I see is an unknown girl, breathing irregularly as she brandished a strange murder weapon while roaming the house, under such conditions&mdash;I had no choice but to capture her before doing anything else."

"A strange murder weapon?"

Haruaki threw Fear a glance, who turned her face away with a guilty conscience:

"Umm... It's a long story. That eight-legged demon with the name that starts with 'S'&mdash;Come on, that's completely unimportant! In any case, the current issue is, this girl humiliated me!"

"Hmm. Since you are this angry about it, let's do it this way."

Using both her hands and feet, Kuroe stood up from her cushion. Walking over to Fear's side, she then laid herself flat on the floor directly. Fear jumped in fright at her sudden behavior.

"W-What are you doing?"

"This is my offer of apology. As compensation, I allow you to do with my body as you wish."

"Wha..."

Thus Kuroe closed her eyes. Due to the directness of her attitude, Fear could not help but halt in puzzlement. After some time passed, Kuroe opened an eye while remaining lying on the floor&mdash;

"...Would you prefer if I took my clothes off?"

"Don't take them off! Damn it, what's with this girl...!"

"Fear, it's very tiring if you get caught up in her pace, you know~  The correct way to get along with Kuroe is to deal with her casually. After all, her actions are done on whim as well."

Haruaki's helpful words prompted Fear to return to the dining table, pouting.

"Ahhh~ Whatever! I'm hungry, Haruaki, time for dinner! Serve me the rice, okay!"

"Acquittal? Why thank you. I'm hungry too."

Returned to her seating cushion as if rewinding her motions, Kuroe held out her empty bowl as if imitating Fear. Haruaki and Konoha went to task filling the two girls' rice bowls respectively. As the rice cooker's steam condensed into a layer of mist on Konoha's glasses, she murmured with a tired expression:

"It seems like things have become lively all of a sudden..."

"Yeah... I guess this is the kind of feeling parents get once they have their second child huh~"

"Ch-Child. Parents. Right, for children to exist, there must be parents in the first place, so in other words... The two people apart from the children... Are like... Husband and wife? U-Ufu... Ufufufufufu...!"

Konoha giggled to herself strangely, her blushing face looking up in the air. Without wiping the steam from her glasses, she kept moving the rice ladle in her hand, unaware that the rice bowl in her hand was becoming a Tower of Babel.

...Oh well. Haruaki had no idea why, but Konoha did act in this manner from time to time.

All sorts of trouble would increase with Kuroe's return. And most of them&mdash;essentially all of them would fall upon himself to clean up... Haruaki thought to himself in resignation.



"Haru's cooking is great as always."

"Thanks for the praise."

"The shameless brat has a redeeming quality at least. But apart from this, he's basically quite shameless."

"And just like always, Kono-san's cooking is instantly recognizable with a single glance. This cabbage roll is stuffed with so much meat it seems like it'd pop out as soon as I apply pressure with my chopsticks."

"A-As long as it's tasty, it's fine, right?"

"But it is quite tasty, yes."

"Kuroe, there's no need to talk to her that much. Because Cow Tits is Cow Tits, so all she can make is Cow Tits cuisine. Eating all that useless meat every day, she ends up growing heavier day after day, so heavy that one cannot bear the sight of her. Then realizing her weight has broken the bed boards, she secretly replaces them in the middle of the night. Now that's Cow Tits."

"Why do you have to lie like that?"

"..."(mournful eyes)

"Kuroe, don't you start believing her!"

In any case, it was quite a racket. Noise flew incessantly across the dining table... Despite the most terrible first encounter, Fear seemed to have grown accustomed to Kuroe more or less. Except&mdash;judging from the way she furtively threw side glances at Kuroe, she must have many questions? Indeed, Fear should have noticed it. Haruaki could not recall if he had mentioned it to her or not, but based on the fact that Kuroe traveled alone&mdash;one should naturally be able to deduce the conclusion.

After the meal, conversation at the dining table suddenly came to a halt. Indeed, Fear must have been waiting for this opportunity to speak up.

"Say, Kuroe, umm... You've been traveling alone all this time?"

"Yes, I like it this way, to wander unknown lands. What about it?"

"No, how should I put this... Won't you feel uncomfortable... So if you don't need to stay in this home, that means..."

Watching Fear stutter, Kuroe seemed to realize something. Gently, she closed her blank-looking eyes halfway.

"Oh... There's no problem. My curse is completely lifted."

"S-So it really turns out to be true! You're different from Cow Tits' 'almost lifted' state&mdash;Is that right!?"

In contrast to Fear who had jumped up from her seat, Kuroe sipped her tea as she answered quietly:

"Yes. Cutting the owner's hair bit by bit whenever night arrives, using hair as a medium to drain life force, or using that life force to lengthen my own hair&mdash;finally killing the owner by absorbing their life force completely, none of that will happen anymore. For convenience's sake, Haru remains my owner but even if some other human takes his place, I shouldn't feel the same impulses again."

"Is that so... Really... Curses can be lifted..."

"Didn't I tell you before already? You don't believe me?"

"I-It's not like that! Just that... Finally it feels more real..."

Fear answered awkwardly. Then she suddenly looked up as if she had thought of something.

"But... Your powers still remain, right?"

"Yes, it's very convenient."

As if to prove her point, Kuroe's hair wrapped itself around and picked up the teapot to refill her teacup. This was very rude behavior, Haruaki had already warned her many times... But he decided not to nag so much today.

"From what I've heard, your kind will retain your original forms, only with the curse gone away, that's all&mdash;I remember I mentioned this before. Say, Kuroe, I've already given up trying to stop you from going off to wander, but at least keep in touch once in a while during your travels! I do worry sometimes!"

"Speaking of which, didn't this journey last a bit too long?"

Konoha asked with her head tilted. Really?&mdash;Kuroe tilted her head in turn as if none of this concerned her.

"Yeah. Especially after Fear arrived, many crazy incidents have happened. It would've been a lot easier if you were here to help. That's what I thought to myself quite a few times."

"Many incidents? What incidents?"

The expressionless girl answered directly with questions of her own. Haruaki threw a glance at Fear and scratched his cheek.

"Yeah, basically... Many incidents. They're over anyway, so there's no point to elaborate on them. Just be more careful from now on."

"Understood. By the way, I have a question&mdash;Haru, are you hurt?"

Kuroe looked at Haruaki's left hand as she spoke. She was particularly observant in strange areas of this sort.

"Yeah, roughly two weeks ago... But it's mostly healed."

Kuroe narrowed her eyes and murmured: "...'Many incidents,' so that's what you meant." She probably realized that these were real threats that created real injuries.

"...Then let's mend it a bit. Although it's just a small injury, having no injuries would be better. Give me your hand."

"It's actually nothing. But if you really must help me, then thank you."

Haruaki withdrew his left arm from his sleeve, exposing his entire shoulder. Konoha blushed and turned her face away, but kept sneaking glances over. What's going on? I don't think I have any strange chest hair, right...?

"H-Hey Haruaki, don't expose something so shameless! What are you doing?"

Fear was also blushing. But rather than explaining, it would be faster to simply let her watch.

Kuroe approached Haruaki, plucked several strands of her own hair and untied the bandages on Haruaki's left arm, using her hair to wrap up his arm instead. Then&mdash;

"Mode: «Satisfied Yorimori»!"

"Hmm..."

Haruaki felt something in his wound. A slight pain. But it only lasted for a instant and then it was replaced by an ambiguous feeling of warmth. The wound felt as though it were being covered by something like warm jelly.

"Woah... The hair gave off light for an instant just now!"

"This is the reverse flow of life force, thereby resulting in improved self-recovery... As a side note, results are better if you take this opportunity to warm up the wound. Just press something like a hand warmer<ref>'''Hand warmer'''(懐炉):  small (mostly disposable) packets that produce heat on demand.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_warmer]</ref> onto it and it should heal up after ten-odd minutes."

"Is it because the excess heat will be converted into healing? I don't really get how it works."

"We don't have any hand warmers in this house, but even if we did, I'm not doing something so friggin' hot in this weather... Given its current state, I guess it'll heal up after a night's rest? Thanks anyway, Kuroe."

Haruaki had Konoha help him wrap the bandages again, over the the hair. Had he received this treatment immediately after the injury, it would have been quite a big help, but pointing this out now would not help anything.

"By the way, Kuroe, I was wondering just now, what's with the strange incantation?"

Fear's modest question prompted Kuroe to nod her head in rapid succession as if going "Great question." Although her expressionless face remained blank as usual, she seemed subtly delighted.

"It's very cool, right? Performing these moves quietly seems so uncool, so I thought up some names myself."

Fear's face seemed to be overcome with mixed emotions. Haruaki silently applauded her. Wow, that's really adult of you! How great you are, Fear! Because I gave my honest opinion once, I was subjected to merciless punishment by suspension upside down!

"Anyway, coming home means that your itch to wander has been satisfied for now? That said, Pops' vagabond ways are even worse than yours... Anyway, have a good rest now!"

Haruaki piled up the empty dishes as he spoke. Ah&mdash;Kuroe cried out softly.

"&mdash;I forgot to mention why I came back."

"Hmm? Why you came back?"

"Yes. Two reasons&mdash;which do you want to hear first? The interesting one or the boring one?"

Piling up plates and utensils just like Haruaki, Konoha asked:

"If we follow what happens in movies, we should theoretically listen to the interesting one first, right?"

"Indeed. Okay, Kuroe, I don't really get it, but please start with the more interesting reason!"

"&mdash;Ah, sorry, I refuse. I must force the choice to start with the boring reason."

"Then why did you ask us to choose just now? This makes no sense at all!"

"No, it's not like that."

Kuroe flapped her long sleeves.

"Because the relatively boring reason is: 'Someone seems to be after me.'"

"What?"

Moving her sleeve, Kuroe pointed at the garden. Only then did Haruaki realize that since a while ago, Kuroe's blank gaze had been directed towards the "something" she now pointed out with her sleeve&mdash;

"It's simpler to start with this reason, ''because the person is right here''."


"Ara ara, I didn't expect to be discovered before I could say hello... How should such a scene be titled, I wonder? Ufufu."

A voice was heard from the darkness of the night. It was a familiar voice, no recollection necessary.