Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 3===

Haruaki, Konoha and Fear continued to search the ruins of the abandoned house for the vanished Alice until late at night, but of course, it was in vain. The next day at dawn&mdash;

The news on television reported the discovery of another cube-shaped corpse.



Ahhh&mdash;I must do something.

Fear's mind was filled with endless anxiety. By the time she came to her senses, lessons had all ended.

Staring blankly at the ceiling of the noisy classroom, Fear pondered.

Indeed, she felt compelled to act. It was her duty. After all, Alice was doing these things because she wanted to recruit Fear into the Bivorio Family. If Cow Tits was right, the chances of it being terrorism was quite high. If you don't join us, innocent people will be killed one after another! Can you accept that?&mdash;That was the message behind it.

&mdash;How could I possibly accept this!? That woman is crazy!

But why? Why does that woman want me? What kind of responsibilities will she impose on me in the Family? For the sake of fulfilling her goal, she even needs to go as far as to kill off innocent people?

Furthermore, that woman mentioned something about "figuring out what the victims share in common"... What did that mean? Would the incident really end once they found this point of commonality? Their only source was the news on television, but the news reports did not point out anything in common between the victims. There was very little information at the moment, with only rehashed speculation of a psychopathic murderer or a religious cult's ritual. Naturally, Haruaki and his companions who watched the news together were unable to find any commonality in the victims' information such as their names or occupations.

(Ahhh... I must do something, but there's so little information!)

Was she unsuited to thinking? Fear wondered helplessly. After all, she was a tool and tools did not need to think.

Humans were suited to thinking. Because they lacked power, because they were not tools, they needed to think.

In times like these, she needed that person after all.

There was nothing wrong with asking others for help. Fear had learnt this in the previous incident.

"Fear... Hey, Fear?"

"That's... Right... I guess I'll have to get help again... Things weren't working out in the first place."

Treating Haruaki's calls to her purely as processed information, Fear took her schoolbag and stood up.

"...Hmm? What's the matter, Fear-kun?"

"Kirika... I have a request, could you please help me?"

Kirika's return gaze seemed to carry a certain kind of ambiguity. As if enduring something, she meaninglessly narrowed and widened her eyes every now and then. The rhythm of her breathing was also quite irregular, often mixed with intentional deep breaths.

As she took a deep breath, Kirika slumped her shoulders and turned her gaze away.

"&mdash;My apologies. I've already mentioned yesterday, I can't provide any assistance this time."

"I see..."

Fear had expected Kirika's answer, but it still elicited a sense of loneliness. She could not help but feel gloomy, bowing her head dejectedly.

"Hey Fear, I understand how you feel, but please don't make unreasonable requests to her... I'm sorry, Class Rep, don't let it weigh on your mind."

"No... I'm the one who should..."

"Also, umm... It pains me to say this, but we need to go out today as well..."

As soon as Haruaki finished his sentence, Kirika looked up, glancing at him with a gaze conveying a complicated mix of emotions, but then she immediately looked back down again.

"Didn't we agree... it was... just for yesterday...? Fear and Konoha aside, you're the executive committee's assistant, Yachi, to ask for leave two days in a row... Too irresponsible... It troubles... me greatly too."

We're the ones who feel greatly troubled. After all, Haruaki is an important part of the team. Compared to a sports festival, our current matter is much more urgent&mdash;But then again, Kirika would only speak this way because she was not privy to the situation.

"Meaning you won't allow it?"

"Indeed, your request for leave... Denied. No time to... waste. Let's... go... Ooh!"

Kirika was just about to rise when she lost balance. Haruaki frantically reached out to catch her, but she grabbed the corner of her desk to support herself on her own.

"Huff... Huff..."

"A-Are you okay?"

"...I am fine. Let's go. Put on your sportswear."

"What do you mean by 'let's go"? You don't look fine at all..."

Haruaki frowned, greatly troubled. Judging from his eyes, his intentions were completely obvious. Indeed. Naturally, he could not possibly leave Kirika alone in her unwell state. He wanted to help.

&mdash;Then why don't you just go ahead and help her!?

Suddenly, an annoyed feeling of resignation filled Fear's heart, one that even she could not understand very well herself. This emotion turned into a forceful and legitimate reason, easily trumping all others.

"Haruaki, you go and help Kirika. I'll be fine by myself."

"H-Hey! Wait a minute!"

While listening to Haruaki's calls&mdash;

Fear rushed out of the classroom without looking back at all.