Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume3 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 4===

The next morning&mdash;Before the gates of Taishyuu Private High School, a silver-haired girl approached a male student.

"Hey, you."

"Eh?"

Fear glared severely as she looked up to the student, her lips twisted in a malevolent manner.

"Do you want to have a cut...?"

"W-What?"

"We will provide the necessary sharp instruments, so don't you worry. So, would you like one...?"

Intimidated by her strange forcefulness, the student could not help but step back. However, Fear continued to pressure him with her gaze sweeping over his body as if licking him.

"You really look like you want to be cut. Cleanly and decisively, snip snip... It will feel liberating, I guarantee it will be quite~ pleasurable..."

"E-Eeeeek<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>!"

"You don't have to scream. It's not scary at all, so there's nothing to be afraid of! And you definitely won't bleed... Hey, how about it? That heavy and obstructing thing on your neck, let us help you sever it cleanly into two, eliminating it at the root&mdash;"

"H-Hey&mdash;!"

At this moment, Haruaki extended his knuckles from behind Fear and clamped her head, grinding her temples from the side.

"Muhaff! Idiot, what are you doing? I'll curse you!"

"Wah&mdash;&mdash; S-Save me&mdash;&mdash;"

Taking advantage of the opening, the student&mdash;with his shoulder-length hair&mdash;dashed into the school building like a fleeing rabbit.

"Oh no! My prey! Stop getting in my way, Haruaki!"

"Could you stop saying such misleading things!?"

"What! How was it misleading exactly!? I was simply persuading him, asking if he wanted to get a hair cut at the beauty parlor&mdash;"

"The problem is you don't sound anything like that! Your dialogue just now belongs undoubtedly to a tribal headhunter!"

Nothing of that sort&mdash;Fear pouted. In any case, Haruaki divided his pile of promotional flyers and gave half to her, instructing her to simply pass them out with a smile. Grumbling to herself, Fear began to distribute flyers to the students.

Meanwhile, Haruaki could hear Konoha's voice from behind.

"Please, everyone, the beauty parlor in the shopping street, the 'Dan-no-ura,' will be reopening tomorrow. You can obtain a discount with this flyer~ Come, thank you very much~!"

Smiling radiantly, Konoha was passing out flyers all around. As befitted someone who occasionally worked part-time at a bookstore in the shopping street, she was quite used to the task.

...Haruaki had gone to the convenience store early in the morning to photocopy the flyers and arrived at school earlier than usual to pass them out. Naturally, this all stemmed from Kuroe's nonchalant orders: "Tomorrow will be preparations. Then the shop opens the day after. So all of you, please help promote the event at school tomorrow!"

Originally, Haruaki was thinking there was no obligation to help her out so much, to the extent of distributing flyers. Or to put it bluntly, he felt it was a hassle... But then he suddenly realized something.

Rising food and living expenses since Fear's arrival + Kuroe's return home + No increase in Pops' allowance payments = Life in abject poverty. This equation was going to dictate their future.

Hence, Haruaki decided that Kuroe should at least cover her own cost of living given her independence. Since she mentioned that she had depleted her savings during her travels, this implied that any deficits incurred by Kuroe's shop from now on would directly impact the Yachi household budget...!

Consequently, as much as Haruaki and company lamented the world's unfairness, they still worked diligently to advertise Kuroe's business through guerrilla tactics.

"Hey Fear, how are things on your end?"

"I can't understand this. Why is the acceptance rate higher when I simply pass out the flyers silently...?"

Fear grumbled with a face of displeasure. Naturally, the answer lay in the balance of appearance and words... But Haruaki decided to withhold this from her for now.

"But a beauty parlor huh... I never expected Kuroe to have her own business..."

"It's already been a couple years... Pops and the superintendent helped out apparently, but I don't know the details. Anyway, she calls herself a hairstyling expert and her skills seem quite excellent."

"She manages the business alone? Given her appearance, do any customers show up?"

"Brace yourself and don't be too surprised. For the sake of convenience, Kuroe claims to be twenty-years-old to the public. An extremely child-faced, slow-maturing but exceptionally skilled hairstylist... Before setting out on her journey, she was already quite highly commended!"

"Commended... In other words, she was helping people, right?"

Fear looked into the distance.

"Yes. Perhaps because of her special skills, she was able to lift her curse so quickly without trouble?"

"Special skills... Really?"

Watching Fear fall silent, Haruaki understood what she was thinking. Smiling wryly, he smacked the back of her head with a stack of flyers.

"Hmm? Hey, what are you doing?"

"...You only need to do things at your own pace. Look, there's still so many flyers remaining, hurry and finish distributing them! So long as you avoid saying strange things, you will be a significant contributor!"

"I don't quite get what you mean by 'saying strange things'... Mu, damn it, what's with that shameless expression on your face!? Hmph, I don't need your reminders to get it done!"

Fear instantly rushed into a crowd of students but suddenly raised her hand and said:

"Oh, Kirika!"

Walking through the school gates was Haruaki's class representative&mdash;Ueno Kirika. Her skirt was unfashionably long as usual while her upper uniform was ironed straight and proper. She looked up with an inexplicably blank expression:

"Hmm...? Oh, it's you, Fear-kun... And Yachi... And Konoha-kun over there? What are you all doing?"

"This. You came at the right time, take this!"

Kirika glanced at the flyer she received from Fear.

"Beauty parlor opening... I see."

"Yeah, business begins tomorrow apparently."

"...I'll check it out if I feel like it. Well then, I'm going first."

Folding the flyer neatly, Kirika made her way towards the school building. Watching her from behind, Haruaki and Fear both inclined their heads in puzzlement:

"Somehow it feels like Class Rep isn't very energetic?"

"Yeah. Maybe she's not getting enough sleep?"

Because she had become very busy lately... Just as the two worried, a commotion began in their surroundings.

"H-Haruaki-kun, Haruaki-kun! We're in big trouble!"

"Oh Konoha, what trouble...? Ugh!"

Konoha was running towards him, carrying the few flyers remaining in her hand. Behind her was&mdash;

"What is this I hear about people engaging in unauthorized soliciting? Show yourselves!"

It was the physical education teacher (female) whom no one dared to oppose, famous for her Spartan teaching style. Always equipped with a shovel on her shoulder, this served as a strange identifying characteristic in the same vein as the superintendent's gas mask.

"Oh no! Fear, Konoha, time to retreat!"

"Uwah, what is it, what is it? Stop dragging me!"

A complete no-brainer, but from the moment the trio included Fear who attracted crowds like a panda at a zoo, the perpetrators were already glaringly obvious. Despite escaping the scene successfully, they were called out as soon as they reached their classrooms&mdash;the trio ended up receiving a harsh lecturing.



"Jeez... It's not like we were doing anything bad in the first place!"

Several hours later at break time, Fear was pouting with her arms crossed before her chest, clearly indignant.

"No, getting lectured was to be expected. I originally thought we could get away with it for one day but I was too naive."

"How could you brush the matter aside by concluding 'too naive'!? We still have flyers left! If we don't do something about this, the beauty parlor's plan for booming business will suffer a setback!"

Fear was unexpectedly motivated. Very likely, this was not unrelated to Kuroe's proposal of "If many customers come, I'll share some of the profit as thanks for your help!"

"Hey Haruaki, are there any other solutions?"

"You're asking me for other solutions... Well, there's no point if customers only come once tomorrow simply because of the flyer discount. We must do more long term promotion."

Muttering, Haruaki looked up and suddenly rested his gaze on the notice board hanging next to the blackboard. "X Days Remaining Until the Sports Festival"&mdash;the students' handmade calendar.

"Sports festival huh... Wait a minute, in that case...?"

Suddenly inspired, Haruaki stood up and walked over to Kirika's seat in the back. Fear also followed with a surprised expression.

"Class Rep, excuse me..."

Like a serious class representative, Kirika's gaze was cast down at the textbook for the next lesson. However, her face looked blank and her eyes did not seem to be following the sentences on the page.

"Say, Class Rep."

She must really be tired huh... Thinking that to himself, Haruaki called out to her again. Finally, she responded this time:

"Hmm... Yachi? What is the matter?"

"I just remembered, wasn't it mentioned during the last class meeting? The sports festival pamphlet still has space for advertising, so if any shop or business wants to be sponsors, we should invite them..."

Attendees would be flipping through the pamphlet many times in order to check the programme and other things. By placing an ad there, there should be a great publicity effect.

"Indeed it was mentioned before. But it's over already, the deadline was last week."

Hmm... Haruaki frowned. Seeing him like that, perhaps Kirika took pity on him&mdash;

"However, I remember hearing at the executive committee that the pamphlet's layout needs to be revised due to leftover space. Perhaps there might be a chance for leniency. But this means I'll need to beg the seniors."

Then crossing her arms before her chest, she added with a pained expression:

"Besides, this is an advertising space meant for fundraising and formally requires ten thousand yen to buy. If you're trying to beg for leniency after the deadline, you'd need to pay the executive committee at the same time as the request&mdash;Do you have the money?"

"Umm, no..."

"I don't really get it, but me neither."

It went without saying, the latter speaker was Fear.

Paying by installments was probably not an option... Just as Haruaki thought to himself, Kirika suddenly widened one eye and said:

"...By the way, I happen to have enough in my purse to scrape out ten thousand yen."

"No, having you help beg on my behalf makes me guilty enough already, how could I go as far as to borrow the money from you as well... That's totally unacceptable. All I can do is rely on you without doing anything..."

Haruaki suddenly thought of an idea:

"Oh, how about this, let me do something in return? Otherwise, I can't live with myself... For example, I could help you with your work until the sports festival..."

His proposal prompted Kirika to raise an eyebrow. Looking up at the classroom ceiling, she said:

"Come to think of it, I remember we were allowed an executive committee assistant. I originally wanted to decline, saying it probably won't be necessary..."

"But Class Rep, you seem so busy lately, you must be very tired? After all, given my unreasonable request, if I could help you in return, I'd gladly do so."

"I... am not very tired..."

For some unknown reason, Kirika's words became unnaturally vague as she lowered her gaze to the table. Then as if to change the subject&mdash;

"So what is your plan? If you want to make the request, it should be done immediately. Otherwise, it will be too late once the pamphlet is done."

There was virtually no room to make a decision. On one hand, there was the beauty parlor's plans for booming business. On the other hand, Haruaki was beginning to get strange thoughts, wondering if Kirika might suddenly collapse in the middle of the current conversation.

"Hmm... Let's do it. I am relying on you. Deal?"

"Very well. I'll pay the sponsorship fee upfront first."

"Thanks. I will try to pay you back as soon as possible."

"Uh&mdash;could someone explain to me in simple terms what's going on?"

In response to Fear tilting her head in puzzlement&mdash;

"I am going to help Class Rep with her work. In return, Class Rep will help with the beauty parlor's advertising... I'll probably become quite busy after school? Most likely, I won't be able to watch you carefully from now on, so don't you go around doing anything weird, okay?"

Haruaki was part of the arch building team while Fear belonged to the dance team. Their activities after school were already different but because the workshop site and the practice grounds were quite close, Haruaki was still able to check if she was doing anything strange. But since he was going to be working with Kirika for the executive committee, he would be hard pressed to keep a close eye on Fear from this point onwards.

Hearing Haruaki's comments, Fear looked at Haruaki and Kirika's faces in turn, then began to pout unhappily for some reason.

"E-Even if you're not present, I won't feel troubled at all! It's true! You go ahead and help Kirika as much as possible! Rather, I should say, d-don't you go around doing anything weird yourself, shameless brat! Hmph!"

Fear strode back to her seat. Her behavior was totally incomprehensible.

In any case, Haruaki was going to become much busier. Preparations for the sports festival, helping Kirika, the beauty parlor's plan for booming business, and the incident last night that suddenly occurred to him&mdash;The Bivorio Family. Their goal was apparently to take Fear away but from Fear and Konoha's perspectives, they posed little threat as enemies and did not seem like a concern. Nevertheless, the matter of "being targeted" still caused unease that could not be erased from his heart.

(Sigh... Ever since Kuroe returned home, things needed to be done have increased all at once. Say, I wonder if Kuroe is actually doing her own part seriously?)



The "Dan-no-ura" beauty parlor was Ningyouhara Kuroe's castle. Located in a corner of the shopping street, the shop space was comparable to that of a small convenience store. The store sign, written in beautifully flowing cursive calligraphy, was also quite striking.

Standing before the metal shutters in front of the shop, Kuroe was staring up at the sign with her usual blank gaze. There were so many things to do. Cleaning, replenishing consumables, checking the equipment and facilities... All sorts of random chores. And most of these random chores required monumental effort.

"Ohoh&mdash;K-Kuroe-chan! You're back?"

"Yes, Yaomichi-san. I'm back."

The owner of the neighboring fruit shop came to greet her, followed immediately by the neighboring fishmonger&mdash;

"What!? Kuroe-chan came back! R-Really! Welcome back!"

"I have returned, Uomasa-san... I intend to reopen for business tomorrow. I'll be in your care."

Hurray&mdash;the strongly built fishmonger cheered and exchanged glances with the fruit shopkeeper. They made a fist at the same time.

"Hey hey, Yaomichi, this is not the time to be doing business leisurely!"

"Well said! Our shopping street's idol, Kuroe-chan, is reopening her shop...! How could we not help out? Very well, follow me, let's get that guy from the flower shop to help!"

The two men were about to rush off... But Kuroe called them back.

"W-What is it?"

Kuroe slowly blinked her blank-looking eyes and expressionlessly inclined her head slightly.

"...Thank you."

"! You're very welcome!"

For some reason, the two men shook hands and disappeared into the other end of the shopping street.

...Hmm.

Watching them leave, Kuroe blinked. Next&mdash;It looked like there was no need to worry about preparing flowers or other chores. Thinking that at the same time, Kuroe lifted the metal shutters and walked into the shop.