Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume4 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 4===

On the way back from getting tea from the kitchen, Haruaki heard voices from the living room. Casually, he peered through the doorway to check out the situation inside. Since he intended to return to his room after a quick look, it naturally took on the style of a sneak peek.

In the living room, two people were sitting opposite each other at the dining table. Fear was casually turning the Rubik's cube as she spoke:

"Then... What now, Kuroe? Simply waiting leaves us with too much time doing nothing."

"Hmm yes. Although defeating that man is definitely decided, sitting around is not really working out. We should do our best and try to help Haru recover his memories, right?"

Kuroe nodded as she gazed blankly.

"Do you have any ideas?"

"Well... If we follow the usual methods in manga or movies, the cliched way is to give him a bit of a shock."

"A shock...?"

"Yes, such as&mdash;"

Remaining expressionless, Kuroe lifted her fist up to her face and said nonchalantly:

"Punch him."

"...Ohoh, that's easy to understand."

Fear nodded seriously.

(Don't accept that idea so easily!?)

As much as Haruaki wanted to scold them, it would be embarrassing if he popped out now. While praying that the idea would not be put into practice, he continued watching.

"But the current situation is special, so I don't know if punching alone will have an effect."

"So that means a harder punch is needed huh...? If that's what you're saying, let's do it this way&mdash;"

Fear also raised something to the side of her face like Kuroe had done earlier.

However, what she raised was a viciously spiked metal club.

(What&mdash;!)

Things had gotten even worse.

Haruaki desperately covered his mouth, trying to suppress his exploding urge to protest. Who knew where she had taken that thing out from; was it something similar to the drill he saw earlier?

"...Excellent idea. But somehow, I get the feeling that it's more likely to make Haru's memory loss even worse."

"Umuu, actually, I think so too."

Fear turned the metal club back into a Rubik's cube. Haruaki held his hand to his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hmm, punching him was just a joke, okay. Anyway... Rather than doing things that may or may not work, why not think about the root cause of Haru's condition instead? In other words, I guess we must wait for Kono-san."

Hearing Kuroe's words, Fear sighed and leaned back onto the tatami floor, raising her Rubik's cube towards the ceiling. Then she began to randomly swivel the colors around.

Relieved that shocking violence was not going to be used to jog his memory, Haruaki prepared to return to his room. At this moment, he heard the last voices from the living room behind him.

"Ahhh, this is so difficult... All I'm capable of is punching him."

"Me too. Don't be disheartened, Ficchi~"

"I'm not disheartened. But it's just... I feel... so vexed."

The voices were mixed with the clicking sound of the Rubik's cube.

They sounded very lonely.

Walking along the corridor, Haruaki suddenly paused for a moment, but instantly continued again.

Walking towards his room&mdash;as though he were fleeing.

After a while, voices started up in the living room again.

"...Is he gone?"

"Probably gone."

"How dare he stand there and eavesdrop so sneakily... Couldn't he have come in?"

"He probably found it awkward? That's what I think."

Hmph&mdash;Fear snorted and the Rubik's cube began to play its music again.

Click click. Click click. Click click&mdash;

The colors did not match up. Because she was just swiveling it randomly, the colors did not match up.

Even so, the scattered colors could not possibly disappear.

Undoubtedly, they remained on this little toy.

Except that they were off from their proper positions.

Quietly, Fear waited for the day they would match up&mdash;



I'm the worst. The absolute worst&mdash;Haruaki thought to himself.

"Sigh..."

He was sitting at this desk, spinning his mechanical pencil. Staring him in the face was the tea he had brought from the kitchen as well as the math handout he had made zero progress on.

He found it ludicrous. So ludicrous that he was overflowing with self-contempt. It really was the worst.

Dry and boring theorems. Formulae. Geometric analysis. The very fact that he needed do his homework.

These were all unimportant yet he clearly remembered them all.

Why?

Why could he not remember what seemed to be the most important matters&mdash;

Apparently it was not his own fault. They said there was a villain. Even so, the one who had lost his memory was himself. He was still the one who could not remember.

As much as he wanted to improve the situation, he had no idea where to start. Because of that, he had followed that unimportant sense of crisis in his heart and faced the desk. Better than staring into space and doing nothing was what he thought originally, but how could anything result? He had intended to drink some tea to relax then work on his homework&mdash;visiting the kitchen for a change in mood&mdash;but it ended up counterproductive.

Because he accidentally heard their lonely voices.

Once again, he sighed and bowed his head, resting his forehead against the desk.

"Damn it... Hurry up and remember, idiot..."

A sense of helplessness and guilt. The mixture of these two emotions naturally turned into self-directed rage. Hurry up and remember, hurry up and remember, hurry up and remember!

The girls' words surfaced in his mind. If getting punched could really recover his memories, that would be nice too.

Instead of suffering punches, he knocked his forehead against the desk. "Bang! Bang!" Many times, many times.

Ouch. But this would be a cheap price to pay if it really could restore his memories. He kept repeating the act but to no avail.

How could it possibly return his memories?

"Ooh..."

He lifted his sharply aching forehead. Damn it&mdash;Cursing the desk again, Haruaki shook his head. Ahhh, no good, this was useless as expected. Calm down.

He deliberately took a deep breath and stretched. Leaning himself back on the chair, he arched his spine backwards and stared at the ceiling&mdash;

He found an expressionless young girl, sitting upside down on the ceiling.

"Uwah!"

"Haru, even if you abuse yourself, it won't help."

Maintaining her blank gaze, she spoke nonchalantly. Then with the writhing motion of the hair she had spread out to adhere to the ceiling, she landed with a spin in the air.

"Your forehead is all red now."

"Man, what a shameful scene to be witnessed... D-Don't mind it."

"Was it really because of what we said just now? I'm sorry, it really was just a joke."

"Eh... I was discovered?"

"Yes, that's why Ficchi asked me to check on you."

"I see... No, but this actually has nothing to do with what you said. It's simply... Umm... A ritual for cheering oneself..."

A slight sense of mirth appeared on Kuroe's cheeks. She moved closer to Haruaki.

"I'll heal you. This is the power I possess."

"Eh? No, it's okay, it's not so serious that you need to use your power. It doesn't hurt anymore anyway... Uwah!"

As Kuroe approached, she wrapped her hair around Haruaki's face. Rather than extending her hair, she simply used it at its normal length, wrapping loosely.

But then nothing happened. Nothing particularly special happened.

The petite girl wrapped her arm around the back of his head and simply embraced tightly.

Covered by the hair, Haruaki could not see. His face could sense the touch of a flat chest while the top of his head felt a downward gaze. If one were to describe it instinctively, it was a very gentle gaze.

"W-W-What's going on...?"

"Didn't I say I was going to heal you? But I didn't mean your physical injury. I am a doll and dolls heal people's hearts by embracing and being embraced... But to be honest, that's not really my forte."

Haruaki felt his own hair waving beneath her breath. Next, her voice sounded very gentle.

"Hey, Haru."

"...Yes."

For some reason, being hugged in this manner felt very soothing. Hence, Haruaki did not try to struggle free and simply allowed Kuroe to embrace him as she pleased.

"Don't be impatient. Haru is Haru, the Haru that I know, Ficchi knows and Kono-san knows. This fact will never change."

"But I... don't recognize any of you. I am such a bastard for having forgotten you all..."

"Even so, the fact doesn't change. I am relieved. Seeing you sip tea in leisure or argue noisily with Ficchi, I think to myself... Ahhh, Haru is Haru. So... Don't force yourself. Just act naturally as usual. Don't blame yourself all the time. Don't be harsh on yourself just because you're trying to recover Haru's style, because Haru, you've already got it."

"...Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize, you know?"

Kuroe smiled wryly and Haruaki did the same. Finding himself being embraced and comforted by such a child and feeling relieved as a result, Haruaki concluded that he really had far to go. Definitely, he had to pull himself together.

The weight of Kuroe's face against his head was slowly shifting. As the hair slid along her chin, her downward moving face stopped in front of Haruaki's forehead.
[[image:C3 04-125.jpg|thumb]]

Through the layer of hair wrapped around him, came a light touch&mdash;The sensation of lips. It felt like a light kiss or a blessing.

A kiss consisting only of pure affection.

Even so, those were still a girl's lips. Despite her child-like figure, those were still a girl's lips. She spoke and gazed gently like an elder sister... A girl's lips.

Ooh&mdash;Haruaki stopped breathing and moving for an instant. The hair released him with rustle. Regaining his sight, Haruaki looked forward to Kuroe walking towards the door to leave.

"Hmm~ Well, that's that. Good luck with your homework~"

"Yeah... Yeah!"

Looking back slightly, she waved as she gazed blankly and slid open the paper door to exit. However, Haruaki did not miss the sight. Very faintly on her cheeks appeared a spot of red one would easily miss without close examination. Surely or maybe, this was exceptionally rare.

"...If you feel embarrassed about it, don't do it in the first place, okay..."

Muttering to himself in the room that had returned to silence, Haruaki smiled and faced the desk again. Although he was not in the mood to do homework, there was plenty to think about, more productive things than meaninglessly bashing his forehead against the desk.

He was not going to force things. However, precisely because the girls seriously cared about him&mdash;He wanted to recover his memories as quickly as possible. Although he would not force himself to do something he could not, he would desperately do everything and anything within his ability. Only that.

Letting his senses become keen.

Searching for that sense of familiarity.

Upon finding any head-scratching hints, he would focus all of his attention on it.

He will retrieve the fragments of himself that had gone to who knows where.

"Very well."

Having made his decision, Haruaki's mood calmed down. There was no need to be anxious. Simply grasp anything that must not be missed. In any case, the most important thing is to wait for something like that to arrive&mdash;

"...In the end, I still have to do my homework, right? Sigh..."

Slumping his shoulders dejectedly, Haruaki picked up his mechanical pencil again.

After that, with the tip of the pencil now feeling slightly lighter than before, Haruaki began to write Xs and numbers.