Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume4 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===

As though she were imitating someone, Kuroe remarked in a somewhat hollow tone:

"Uwah~ A burning hell of meat."

The dining table was laden with Konoha's elaborate cooking. It seemed to be centered around sukiyaki hot pot, supplemented with many of her original dishes&mdash;it was literally "sukiyaki," which meant "cooking only what you like."

Spreading out from the middle of the pot was a brown and undulating terrain, namely, a passionate continent of meat. The little hills shook from the bubbling simmering as white steam rose like miasma, surging forth from underground through crevices in the land. What exactly lay underneath? Perhaps there was nothing at all, or a swamp of scorching broth, or a hidden second layer, another world of meat like the first&mdash;

Haruaki's desperate insistence of the bathroom incident as a misunderstanding seemed to be taking effect. Finally back in good spirits, Konoha thumped her chest and declared:

"You could try dipping it in raw egg sauce~ But since I already added some spicy flavoring, I think the meat is fine as is.  Come, Haruaki-kun, please enjoy!"

"Oh... Okay, thanks for the food."

Receiving the plate she handed over, Haruaki gulped hard. If possible, he wanted to calm himself down first, starting with the salad he had prepared, but there was no choice now... Steeling his mind, he used his chopsticks to pick up a corner of the meat mountain and slowly delivered it to his mouth. His reaction was&mdash;

"Good... It's delicious!"

"Really? I'm so glad! Ufufu!"

"Chomp chomp chomp. Hmph, just as always, you prepare food that faithfully recreates your figure. Stuffy, a sore sight and ugly, furthermore&mdash;Feels greasy and blub blub in texture."

"W-What's with your onomatopoeia and descriptions? If you have any objections, don't eat it!"

Konoha glared murderously in retort. Fear simply snorted and reached towards the pot with her chopsticks again. This was always how their conversations went, so there was nothing for Haruaki to be concerned about. Kuroe gazed blankly and remarked "A protein cataclysm!" or something like that as she kept delivering pieces of meat into her mouth, one after another.

Haruaki glanced at Aiko who was sitting opposite to Fear at the dining table. Since her laundry could not finish that quickly, he invited her to have dinner together while she was here. However, she simply held her chopsticks as she stared timidly at Fear and the girls. Was she frozen by shyness?

"Come on, you eat some too! It's very tasty."

As Haruaki forced some meat onto Aiko's plate, she looked at his face and slowly brought the meat to her mouth. Then like a small animal, she nibbled from the edge and chewed in her mouth.

"...Very tasty."

"Wow, thank you very much~ Ehehe, I feel so happy for my cooking to be praised by someone I am meeting for the first time! Don't be shy, please eat as much as you want!"

Yes&mdash;Nodding slightly, Aiko began to reach towards the pot on her own initiative. Sitting around a dining table with strangers, anyone would be nervous in this kind of situation, right? But dispelling this sort of tension was precisely the effect of a situation like the dining table.

"What do you mean, eat as much as you want? That's a totally irresponsible statement! Clearly if you eat meat, you'll end up with meat all over your body!"

Hearing Fear's outburst, Kuroe was shaken slightly and reacted:

"Ah! Ficchi~ You speak true words... Isn't this our salvation...!?"

Despite Kuroe's dramatic tone of voice and expression, Fear was oblivious and shook her head seriously&mdash;Meanwhile, Aiko inclined her head in puzzlement as she extracted udon noodles from the depths of the land of meat. Staring and troubled by the long and extending noodle, she went "...Hmm~" as she raised her chopsticks sky high. Apparently, the double hell of "meat under meat" did not come true.

"Don't be hasty, Kuroe, meat does not necessarily grow where you want it to. This lab rat of a failed experiment lies before your eyes... Ah yes, this is the fate of fools who were devoured by greed. To us, bathroom scales might be nothing to be alarmed about, but in her eyes, it must be quite the device of demons, right?"

"A double-edged sword, huh..."

"You two&mdash;! If you don't behave yourselves, I really won't let you eat anymore!"

Amidst the usual commotion, Aiko slowly and leisurely remarked "...It's lengthening" as she continued pulling the udon noodle with a posture akin to a judo shoulder throw.



"By the way, there's something that's bothering me."

Fear's new conversation began just as she was biting into her second after-dinner rice cracker. Crunch crunch crunch... Roughly a third of the way into her rice cracker, she chewed as she spoke:

"Doesn't this girl smell kind of funny?"

"...Hweh~"

"What are you saying all of a sudden? Isn't that a rude thing to say to a girl&mdash;And she just took a shower, she shouldn't smell bad anymore, right?"

"That's right. Sorry, please don't mind her."

"No. It's not what the dog did... Rather, I should say it's her own smell... Drats, I can't express it clearly. Hey, you come over and let me have a sniff."

"...?"

Before Aiko could answer in her puzzlement, Fear approached her on all fours, bringing her face close to Aiko's neck and began sniffing. This was apparently not enough and she even placed her hand on Aiko's shoulder as if about to climb over her, sniffing repeatedly around her throat. Blushing to her ears, Aiko bent forwards and waved her hands frantically.

"...Au au."

"Muu, it's really bothering me, but I can't understand it. Hey, Kuroe, you come over for a look as well."

"I don't understand either, but it sounds like fun, so I'll comply~ Sniff... Hmm~hmm~"

Kuroe approached Aiko from the side and with eyes closed, brought her face against Aiko's ear. Aiko blushed even more intensely.

"Hey, what are you two doing?"

"Wait a sec, this girl really is a bit weird. Cow Tits, you come and help too!"

"W-Why do I have to as well? Isn't Aiko-san really troubled!? Stop it right now&mdash;"

"''Cow Tits''."

Fear looked up for a glance and simply addressed Konoha again. As if feeling something from that, Konoha narrowed her eyes and stood up after a while. Coming over to Aiko who was being continuously harassed by Fear and Kuroe, Konoha dropped to her knees&mdash;

"Uh... My apologies, Aiko-san. This will only take a short while... Sniff... Hmm? Hmm mmm mmm?"

"See? It's weird, right?"

"Apart from weird, there is a very fragrant smell. Sniff~"

"That's the smell of soap, Kuroe. Please focus on the strange smell."

"Why? Although I know it's strange, there's a subtle feeling causing agitation in the depths of my heart&mdash;"

"...Hweh~ A-Au..."

Struggling under the weight of the three girls, Aiko had somehow collapsed onto the tatami floor. Her cheeks burning bright red, her breathing irregular. For some reason, the trio was sniffing her scent as if mesmerized, their noses pointed arbitrarily at different places. Fear's face showed suspicion, Konoha was frowning while Kuroe seemed quite delighted. Perhaps tickled by the breath against her skin, AIko groaned "Nnnngg...!" Then the skirt she borrowed from Konoha was flipped slightly to reveal her long and beautiful legs&mdash;

"L-Like I said~ What is with you girls!? Even Konoha is acting like this! Break it up! In any case, break it up now!"

Red in the face, Haruaki pulled Fear and the others away. Regaining her freedom, Aiko curled herself into a ball as if greatly ashamed and righted her skirt hem&mdash;For some reason, Haruaki felt an intense sense of guilt in his heart.
[[image:C3 04-044.jpg|thumb]]

"Umuu~ I don't really get how it works, but it's really ''that'', right?"

"Yeah, I think so too."

"It's possible to tell by scent, that does happen... In that case, we should just ask directly, okay?"

Fear and the girls huddled together in whispers and slowly turned their gaze towards Aiko. Acting as their representative, Fear approached and asked Aiko who was curling up even more in fright.

To Haruaki, this was completely unexpected&mdash;But somehow, it was a question he could understand on some level.

"You... Are you one of our kind? Although it's purely based on instinct, that's what your smell tells me."

There was a moment of silence before answering, but the bangs concealing Aiko's eyes quivered&mdash;She nodded.

"...Hmm. But..."

"But?"

Konoha asked slightly nervously. Timidly, Aiko lowered her head even more and said:

"I... think... I'm not supposed to stink, right..."



Due to Aiko's strange behavior so far, Haruaki already had a nagging suspicion. This was something that only Haruaki would develop, due to his daily contact with the girls. Sure enough&mdash;Accepting Aiko's identity with such a comment in his mind, the after-dinner moment of tea suddenly turned into a interview regarding Aiko's origins.

Konoha had initially stared at Aiko nervously because of the many recent incidents&mdash;But all of a sudden, she dispelled her vigilant gaze. Aiko's arrival was accidental and was indirectly caused by Fear forcing her to hold Octavianus. At the same time, Haruaki was the direct cause due to dragging her home as an imposed apology. Besides, more than enough time had passed for her to make a move had she intended to. It was quite difficult to imagine any hostility coming from this girl who acted like a small animal.

Using her hair to refill Aiko's teacup for no reason at all, Kuroe watched in amusement to see her taken aback in surprise. Haruaki rewarded Kuroe with a light karate chop to the head and said:

"Uh... How should I say this? To be honest, this only surprises me to the level of 'Oh~ I see"... In any case, these girls are all the same as you, so please understand that first of all."

She nodded&mdash;A motion expressing understanding. Fear interjected at this point:

"So Aiko, 'what' are you?"

Aiko's shoulders shuddered and she spoke:

"...I don't want to say."

WIthout looking at the frowning Fear, Konoha tilted her head backwards and drank from her teacup.

"Fear-san, would you be so bold as to tell others what you are yourself?"

"Hmm&mdash;This... How should I explain? I was just curious on a whim. If you don't want to tell me, it's fine."

Fear lowered her gaze guiltily. Feeling Aiko becoming depressed all at once, Haruaki hastily changed the subject:

"But anyway, to be invited to my house by coincidence... To think something like that would happen... In that case, what were you doing there?"

"...Nothing at all."

"Nothing at... Were you taking a walk?"

"Yes&mdash;Because there is no place for me to go. I'm always wandering around casually, like traveling."

"Yay, a fellow traveler! Traveling is the greatest!"

Kuroe nodded with her blank gaze. Fear again picked up the rice cracker she was about to eat:

"No place to go, so that means you don't have a particular owner?"

"Yes. Because it will cause people trouble, it's better this way."

Fear stopped moving for an instant and turned her face unhappily for some reason. Resting her head against the dining table, she stuffed her face with rice crackers and chewed anxiously. "Oh... That must have been quite tough to suffer through, to think you were able to endure..." Haruaki heard her murmuring to herself.

These girls possessed the dual natures of humans and tools simultaneously. Hence, these two natures would interact and affect each other.

In the same way a human could recover naturally from minor injuries, damage incurred in their tool forms could also self-repair naturally to a certain extent&mdash;Conversely, even after taking human form, they would still feel tool-like desires such as "wanting to be used by someone." This was the unavoidable karma known as "ownership desire."

Furthermore, suppressing this desire was apparently quite a painful experience. Enduring hunger, enduring sleeplessness, even enduring lack of air... In any case, it would be like suppressing the three major human desires! Haruaki recalled Konoha telling him in the past. When exactly, he could not remember.

(In that case&mdash;It must be really as Fear described, Aiko must be in great suffering, right? And for her to insist on doing so&mdash;)

Only one reason came to mind.

Fear remained pouting, her fingertips drumming on the dining table; Konoha sighed for some reason; Kuroe stared blankly as always.

"Ahhh... I can already guess how this will develop. I've already given up, sigh..."

"Hmph, being an excessively nice guy is an incurable disease. But I don't think he even wants to have it treated."

"There will be even more embarrassing moments to be caught from now on. Perhaps it's time for me to invest in a new digital camera."

"Hey, what are you girls talking about?"

"Nothing much. Of course it's nothing."

Pouting slightly with her eyes closed, Konoha bowed and gestured with her open palms towards Aiko like a server welcoming a customer.

"I'm not going to stop you, Haruaki-kun, so do as you wish. You must have something to tell Aiko-san, right?"

"H-How did you know? No, hmm... Since she has nowhere to go, there's no problem with staying in my home... That's basically the idea. How's that?"

He could catch Fear and Konoha sighing simultaneously. Aiko looked up in surprise, staring intently towards Haruaki's group&mdash;Although her hair covered her eyes, that was probably what she was doing.

"Yeah, I guess you're probably quite troubled to hear this so suddenly, right? Uh... Where should I start explaining...?"

"So Aiko, maybe you might find it unbelievable, but this shameless brat is actually immune to curses. Also, all we need to lift our curses are positive thoughts from humans. Furthermore, this home happens to be&mdash;Simply stated, it is precisely the place for lifting curses."

"Yes, we are all here for that purpose... However, mine is already almost lifted, while Kuroe-san is&mdash;"

"My curse is already lifted. To me, this place is like my parental home."

Unexpectedly, Fear and the girls helped to explain. It was quite helpful of them to be willing to provide assistance, but what was with their sulking attitude just now... Haruaki really could not understand.

"Yeah, that's how it is here. How about it?"

Aiko looked down again. As seconds turned into minutes, a moment of silence was created.

Haruaki found it a little unbelievable. Although he understood how it was impossible for her to trust immediately&mdash;But normally, cursed tools should be quite eager to lift their curses. Disregarding special cases like Sovereignty, Aiko already said she had no owner, so there should not be anything to deliberate over, right?

However&mdash;Haruaki thought to himself. She should realize these were not lies. Sitting around the same dining table, sharing the same food, she should have already understood how Fear and the girls lived in this home. Therefore, surely she would&mdash;

Then after the time it took for Haruaki to take ten breaths...

Aiko nodded extremely slowly.

Haruaki felt relaxed as if he had breathed a sigh of relief.

"Great, it's decided. Rather than wandering around aimlessly, this is definitely better... Hmm~ Although even if you had an owner, I'd still try offering you an invitation. Let's get along together from now on, Aiko."

"...Yes."

"Since the master of the house said so, I have no objections. But are you okay on the money side of things?"

"You never care about that normally, why would you suddenly say that only now... Hmm, it should be okay. In actual fact, Pops started transferring a little more money this month. That stupid Pops, did it finally occur to him to consider the situation here?"

"Muu, then it's decided, that! Didn't you mention about giving me an allowance? How about it?"

"I never said anything like that! Don't fabricate memories!"

Fear argued noisily; Konoha sighed in exasperation; Kuroe stirred things up from the said in amusement.

This was a scene unfolding as usual in this home. Amongst it all, Haruaki noticed.

Joining this family as its newest member, Aiko had not smiled all this time.

Extremely shy and a little timid as she was, perhaps this could not be helped. One day, she will surely smile&mdash;He thought to himself. Haruaki hoped to see her smile.

But currently she still could not smile.

As though she was still wondering whether she allowed herself to do so&mdash;

She did not smile.