Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume16 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===

''How I really wish to kill, destroy her''. It was anyone's guess how many times this thought crossed her mind.

Even now, her arm might take action as soon as she lowered her guard. If her gaze were to carry a blade's sharpness like her arms and legs, that block of metal would have turned into pulverized dust a long time ago, sucked into a vacuum cleaner. Sin. Punishment. Execution. A development most natural. A right most natural. A result most natural.

However&mdash;

(...)

"Hooooo&mdash;" Konoha took a deep breath slowly on purpose. She could feel all the pores on her skin still forced open by tension. As though about to charge forward any moment, her body's impulse to act autonomously still remained at the maximum limit, like water that barely avoided overflowing from a cup only due to surface tension.

And that surface tension was named rationality. That being said, who knew whether it was a necessary existence or not.

(We were definitely backed in a corner at the time. If no one did anything, it really would have developed into an unsalvageable situation...)

She closed her eyes and thought back. Overwhelming battle technique. Armor that rendered even the Counter sword skills ineffective. Herself, caught by the enemy's hand. Him, in a vulnerable state. The enemy, pulling back his bladed fist to accumulate force for a finishing blow. If time had continued to flow from that point&mdash;

Surely... Everything would have been over for everyone.

(No, but, even if that might be true...!)

Konoha shook her head, going in circles inside her mind. Agitated. If she were asked whether it was possible to forgive, naturally, the answer was unforgivable. That foolish girl had harmed his body. This was the one fact that must not be forgotten.

Sitting on the tatami floor, Konoha looked up lightly. Her view was obstructed. Sitting heavily on the table, that eyesore of a cube was to blame. Should she slice it up into a million pieces after all?

"Like I said~ You should say something at least. Staying like this forever isn't a solution, right?"

Of course, the one who had forcibly transported her to the living room, despite her current silent state, was Haruaki. Right now, he was smiling wryly and helplessly at the cube on the table, drinking tea from his cup.

Even in this kind of situation, he was still so carefree, a nice guy to a fault. She could not help but wonder how was he still able to make such an expression?

Clearly, his left hand under the table&mdash;was injured from that girl going berserk. Clearly, he had lost fingers. Clearly... they were irrecoverable.

If the fingers had simply been chopped off, perhaps swift treatment from Kuroe might have been able to reattach them. However, conditions were extremely terrible at the time. Their original foothold, the ship, had broken into two halves due to the fight between Fear and Pendragon, sending everyone into the ocean. Under those conditions, it was completely impossible to retrieve chopped fingers. As reluctant as she was to admit, simply surviving was very fortunate already. Even now, she still found it a miracle that all of them had made their way back to the superintendent's cabin cruiser.

"I've said so many times already. I'm not angry. If you hadn't done that, everything would've ended there. Everyone understands that."

"Yes..."

"Yeah, that's right&mdash;"

Kirika and Kuroe were also present. They nodded with exhausted expressions and ambiguous gazes.

They probably still had yet to sort out their emotions, Konoha thought. Had Fear not gone berserk at the time, Kirika really would have died. Pendragon was also going to use his astounding power to force Kuroe into being his. Even so&mdash;

Konoha believed that Kirika could be more angry. She believed that Kirika was entitled to this right. Her position was the same as Konoha's. Seeing his body harmed, how could she possibly stay silent&mdash;

(...No, I suppose... There is this. Speaking of rights&mdash;Perhaps I... I am the one who has no right instead...)

She felt an extremely cold pillar of ice stab into her heart.

Seeing his body harmed?

Had she forgotten? Not too long ago, had she not trampled his body as well? Had she not pierced his shoulder with her hand, feeling his flesh and blood, rubbing her thighs together in lust&mdash;?

She narrowed her eyes. In order to endure that pain, or perhaps to record that pain.

Then Konoha sighed deliberately again. Why had things turned out this way? What should they do next? She was unable to organize her thoughts.

Staring blankly at the cube on the table, she started drinking tea as well to relieve boredom. After she put down her empty teacup&mdash;

"Muramasa-sama, would you like a refill&mdash;Is what I would like to ask, but the hot water is finished. I shall go boil more."

"Oh~ Thank you~ ...Kotecchan, there are some sweet snacks at the bottom of the left cupboard, could you please bring some while you're at it~?"

Sitting uncomfortably all this time, Kotetsu swiftly got up. Seeing that, Honatsu made a request as though he suddenly remembered. All this time, Honatsu was simply sitting on the floor, leaning his back against a column in the veranda, spacing out while gazing upwards at the ceiling. He was probably pondering something.

Sweet snacks. Sitting on a corner of the table was a dish of snacks that had been pushed aside to make way for the eyesore of a steel cube. However, the number of rice crackers on the dish remained constant the whole time as though it were the most natural thing in the world&mdash;

(Turning into a square like this, covering your ears to escape, what else could you hope to accomplish...?)

Konoha inquired of the cube using her gaze instead of turning her thoughts into words. Although she could not confirm if her question was received, she did not care either. She did not expect an answer in the first place.

The crime of harming him. She had committed the same crime before. Mistake. Penance. Karma. True nature.

As cursed tools, their destiny&mdash;

She had devoted much thought to this subject. She had no choice but to think.

However, she could not remain trapped forever in these abstract thoughts. Reality stood before them too. Pendragon wanted to obtain Kuroe, Haruaki was injured, Fear had withdrawn herself from reality.

Their next move and countermeasures must be decided first. In that case&mdash;

Just as Konoha was about to speak&mdash;

A cellphone ringtone was heard.

An inauspicious sense of deja vu. The nightmarish events this morning had also started with a phonecall.

Haruaki subconsciously tried to open his cellphone with his left hand but then his face twisted and he switched to holding with his right. His numbed sense of pain was probably starting to reawaken. Seeing him suffering&mdash;Konoha felt a complicated sense of pain surge in her heart too.

"...Hello?"

'Hi, it's me.'

Just from hearing this one sentence, one could tell who the caller was. Haruaki frowned. A tense atmosphere hung in the living room. Sitting on the table like an object, the cube also seemed to tense its surface of steel.

In the end, this deja vu was right on target. Identical to last time on two points: the phonecall conveyed unfortunate news and that it was an unexpected caller.

Then the caller&mdash;Yamimagari Pakuaki&mdash;started to explain.

The terrifying situation currently taking place somewhere else outside this house&mdash;