Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume5 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 2===

So fucking hot.

Due to the airtight mascot costume&mdash;How many times was it already?&mdash;Kururi sighed as she walked amidst the lively bustle of the cultural festival. She did not find herself particularly conspicuous and the chaotic surroundings easily accepted her attire.

Students moving about; people walking as they yelled out to sell boxes of ''yakisoba'' fried noodles; photographers with "Photography Club, Recording Personnel" armbands; fellow mascots in cat costumes, passing flyers out; a female teacher in a tracksuit, carrying a shovel on her shoulder for some reason; young men in casual clothing, trying relentlessly to chat up girls; and finally&mdash;an elementary school girl on her parent's shoulder, happily wandering amongst the cultural festival's stalls, a parent and child pair. Parent and child&mdash;

In that instant, Kururi began to imagine the faces of her father and sister. Their faces as they fell down the cliff before her eyes as well as the sound of impact coming from far below.

Then she imagined her mother's face, an upside down face. The face of her mother, singing praises to the end of her life, falling downwards, grabbing onto the middle of the cliff, clicking her tongue at Kururi&mdash;And then, the sound that only Kururi found delightful...

Crash!

Kururi dispelled the nonexistent sound and continued to walk, walking in this high school, a space she had never experienced before.

It was crowded but not to the extent where people would bump shoulders. There were high school girls, chatting up a storm while looking this way and that, as well as humanoid mascots who stumbled perhaps due to poor visibility. Even if they were to make any unexpected moves, they would not be able to touch even a finger of hers. For Kururi who paid greater attention to the distance of a single millimeter than anyone else in this world&mdash;The hundreds of millimeters separating them were truly vast.

Naturally, this also applied to the woman walking beside her in a parka. The pair maintained their separation at roughly 740mm. Naturally, this was in perfect accordance with her wishes. Since both sides neither needed nor wanted contact with each other&mdash;whether in terms of physical or nonphysical separation.

Indeed, although there was a need to act together, Kururi wanted to stay as far away as possible from this woman, a member of the Family. She did not want to gaze upon that existence. Simply the awareness of this woman's existence beside her was enough to cause an unpleasant feeling surging in Kururi's heart.

Resembling shame, resembling pain, resembling resentment, resembling fear&mdash;A chaotic and unpleasant feeling that even Kururi herself could not explain clearly.

Hence, there was no need to talk to her unless necessary. But if she tried to start a conversation, Kururi could not ignore her.

"So far the result is we still haven't found our targets..."

"How could it possibly be that easy? I found him once earlier, but it was only by chance."

"There's really too many people. Such a pain."

Beneath the mask, Kururi smiled. If you're in that much of a rush to find your target, why don't you simply kill these students off, one by one? Once the situation escalated, your target will very likely come running&mdash;These half-joking suggestions entered Kururi's mind, but of course, she did not actually voice them out.

Because if she were to do so, the woman would probably do it.

Kururi understood very well.

She knew that the nature of this woman and the Family as an organization.

"How about a change of topic, do you have a Wathe too?"

Kururi answered "No." That kukri knife was no longer in her possession. Feeling that such a simple answer might not be enough, Kururi supplemented it with a nauseatingly disgusting lie.

"That's why I can only act as something like a helper, and cowardly too."

"Don't let that bother you. Or rather, I don't think it would bother the Matriarch. I think I remember some of us don't have Wathes."

"...Yours is that one, right? Called the «Tragedy Method», isn't it?"

Kururi deliberately changed the subject. The woman lightly waved the thing on her shoulder.

"Indeed, indeed. It's my savior."

The Family was more or less a gathering place for people like her. A group of people who were saved by cursed tools and then veered off the right track. Incurably reliant on cursed tools, these people had turned that reliance into the word "love" and branded it deeply in their minds.

Hence, Kururi wondered, were these women actually saved? Did they really not lose something?

She gulped but attempted to ask in a surreptitious manner.

"Say... Have you discovered that you had forgotten something?"

"Hmm? Ah, that's right. I almost forgot."

Kururi jumped in fright but the woman's answer was completely not what she expected.

"Wait for me a moment. I need to do a refill."

The woman walked towards the water faucet in the middle of the corridor and turned it. What she proceeded to do was an act to satisfy her curse. Behind the mask, Kururi frowned as she watched.

Ahhh, how weird.

Wathe, Wathe, Wathe. In principle, apart from Wathes, there was nothing else worth caring about. That was this woman's mode of thinking and the Family's mode of thinking.

If like Kururi, this woman had forgotten something&mdash;forced to forget something&mdash;then surely she should have recovered her memories already. However, she seemed completely aware of this. In that case, there was only one answer.

This woman was completely insane already.

Made insane by the cursed tool and the Family's mission of love&mdash;

Watching this woman was like observing her past self.

And the fact of her former insanity was once again branded upon the depths of her heart.

Kururi understood very well&mdash;Hence, that was why she acted this way.

That was why she stayed with this woman whom she disliked. That was why she felt a sense of revulsion she could not dispel no matter how hard she tried to convince herself that "this was necessary for completing her goal." 

"Sorry for the wait&mdash;Let's go."

Returning from the water faucet, the woman continued forward once more. Kururi pondered again as they walked.

Regarding her past self as well as this woman who presented an image of her past self, Kururi pondered once again.


How disgusting.