Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume17 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 5===

Then finally&mdash;

It was time to start the operation.

While traveling to the destination, Haruaki recalled the information that had been received during the strategy conference so far.



The Lead Auxiliary, Taciturn Chatterbox, possessed the cursed megaphone, the «Demon's Mouth», which was precisely the tool used to hypnotize the students. Just by listening to words spoken through that megaphone, one would be subjected to brainwashing and hypnosis effects. However, it was also possible to resist through personal strength of will.

Reportedly, this hypnosis effect would slowly weaken over time, but it was not going to release naturally, at least not before "Dominionization" finished, hence waiting for it to pass was not an option. Amanda had said that the most concrete solution to free the students would be to locate Taciturn Chatterbox outside the school so as to seize and destroy the «Demon's Mouth». But the hypnosis would most likely be lifted during the instant of the Wathe's destruction, hence further consideration was still needed to decide the actual moment. They must prevent the students from entering a state of uncontrollable chaos.

"By the way, why is she outside the school in the first place?"

Haruaki had asked a simple question.

"Because the «Demon's Mouth»'s curse, causes the user to be affected as well, if they hear the hypnotic suggestion. Hence she, stuffed the megaphone's speaker with soundproof material."

"Huh? Then no sound is transmitted?"

"Inside the speaker, a mic-like device is installed. Picked up by that device, the sound is emitted from another small speaker in her possession. Then the small speaker, is placed where the hypnosis targets are present, while she issues hypnosis orders from far away out of hearing range, I guess, this is the basic operation."

"So to avoid the curse, she has to minimize hearing her own voice as much as possible? Then leaving that small speaker in the broadcasting room&mdash;indeed, probably leaving it in the hands of a certain subordinate&mdash;She then issues orders from outside the school, indirectly through the school's public announcement system. Yes~ The knowns have increased."

After Pakuaki summed things up, Konoha threw a glance at him and said:

"...Then the remaining issue is her actual whereabouts, isn't it? Amanda-san, do you have any idea?"

"No, I don't have definite evidence. But, there are hints."

Next, Amanda provided three crucial pieces of information.

"One, the distance issue. If too far away, the «Demon's Mouth»'s long-distance speaker system, cannot produce cursed effect either. I remember, limit is 500m roughly. So she must be, near the school."

"Yes, indeed... Were there no limit, like a telephone, and any system could be used to transmit sound through a speaker without any concern for distance, that would mean one could freely control others, even from the other side of the globe? That would be far too absolutely ridiculous. This sort of restriction is only natural at least."

Amanda nodded after listening to Kirika and said:

"Second is personality issue. Taciturn Chatterbox&mdash;when executing the Dominion Lord's orders&mdash;is a perfectionist. She will make perfect preparations, prepare a perfect environment, to achieve a perfect result, so as to respond to the Lord's expectations. Also, the «Demon's Mouth» has another characteristic. Basically... when the user is applying hypnosis, the more noise in the surroundings, the worse the effect and the more likely the targets might resist. So&mdash;"

Haruaki gasped in sudden realization.

"She will be somewhere quiet without random noise...?"

Pakuaki also giggled and said:

"Haha, I see. As a perfectionist, she will definitely minimize chances of failure as much as possible. In a noisy country like Japan, quiet places are limited. Adding the restriction that it has to be near the school&mdash;"

"It's possible to guess locations. Basements, top floors in high-rise buildings, as well as&mdash;places with soundproof facilities? Since it's related to the town, Gab-chan is the one to ask."

'I'll send someone to investigate immediately. Zenon-kun.'

'Understood. Please give me some time.'

Voices could be heard from the computer.

Thanks to Amanda, they were now starting to see the path ahead of them.

Haruaki exhaled in relief and smiled at Amanda.

"Thank you. You really helped us a lot... Looks like we'll find a way to get out of our predicament."

Smiling alone was not enough. Haruaki also patted her on the head.

Her cheeks reddened somewhat.

"Coincidence."

"What coincidence?"

"After Knights Dominion, protected me, I became auxiliary, Taciturn happened to have nothing to do, served as my instructor."

"Oh... So that's why you know so much inside information? Everything was thanks to your coincidence. Oh, but&mdash;uh, were you... close...?"

For Amanda, Taciturn might have been a colleague or a boss. Just as Haruaki hoped that she would not feel sad about what was going to happen next&mdash;

Amanda narrowed her eyes.

"Opposite."

"Opposite?"

"Taciturn, in matters unrelated to the Dominion Lord, is a hedonist. That's why I, became her toy&mdash;"

Seeing her show a sad expression for an instant, Haruaki shook his palm and ruffled Amanda's white hair.

Her hair tousled, Amanda looked up at him with a blank expression.

Haruaki's lips grinned as he said to her:

"Now there's one more reason why she must be defeated no matter what."



Roughly two hours passed after this conversation.

Before their eyes was where Zenon's investigation had determined as the most likely place to find Taciturn&mdash;namely, a mixed tenant building near the school. Haruaki and company were standing in front of the building.

Looking up at the window of the targeted floor, Haruaki muttered:

"...Will she be here?"

"It would be troubling if she were not."

"Yeah," said Haruaki as he nodded to Konoha. No matter what, they were not going to stop advancing here. What needed to be done was mostly decided already.

The final target was destroying «Dieu le veut» inside the school. To do that, they absolutely must ''release the hypnosis on the student hostages'' and ''eliminate the barbed wire preventing them from invading the school''. The former had to be undertaken by Haruaki's team because Taciturn, the owner of the «Demon's Mouth», was outside of school. On the other hand, the cursed barbed wire «Auschwitz-Birkenau» could only be damaged from within, hence the latter could only be entrusted to Un Izoey's team who were confined inside the school. This division of labor was naturally decided.

Barging into school would only give the enemy cause to exploit the hostages, hence, as a matter of sequence, the hostages must be liberated first, but it would lead to many problems if the hypnosis were to be released while the students were still completely isolated from the outside world. As soon as they were suddenly jolted back to reality and discovered they were unable to leave the school, they could very well enter a state of chaos. In other words, even if destroying the «Demon's Mouth» could lift the hypnosis, the ideal outcome desired by Haruaki's group at the current juncture was ''taking the «Demon's Mouth» from Taciturn's hands, thereby allowing them to cancel the hypnosis any time''. That being said, if this outcome could not be achieved when time came, they would just have to break the «Demon's Mouth» directly instead.

In the end, if the safety of the students was top priority...

In order to fully resolve the two problems, within and outside the school, both had to be undertaken simultaneously as much as possible.

They initially agreed on a time that they had to steal the «Demon's Mouth» before then. The in-school team would take action according to the predetermined schedule and destroy «Auschwitz-Birkenau». Then Haruaki's group would immediately storm the school while breaking the «Demon's Mouth» at the same time to dispel the hypnosis on the students, allowing them to leave the school&mdash;That was the specifics of the operation.

They had already decided with the in-school team on the time to start executing the operation.

Matters of consideration included the preparation time required by the in-school team to destroy «Auschwitz-Birkenau», the time needed by Haruaki's team to locate Taciturn and actually storming the place, as well as what needed to be done after that operation was accomplished successfully. Namely, the time needed to enter the school and destroy the spear in the school yard, plus the approximate deadline of 2pm. Taking into account all factors and putting in a buffer period to handle various unexpected situations, the deduced conclusion was&mdash;

The operation was set to start at noon today.

It was currently around ten in the morning. No matter how accessible the town's inside information was to the superintendent or how superior Zenon's information processing capabilities, they could not possibly know every corner of this town. They had to spend a lot of time in order to rule out Taciturn's possible hiding places&mdash;but precisely because of who they were, it only took as little as this amount of time. Haruaki did not think that anyone else could have filtered the results down in such short time. Let alone complain, he could only feel gratitude towards the superintendent and Zenon.

Haruaki's group was currently doing what was in their power. This included the usual members: Haruaki, Konoha, Kirika, Kotetsu, and Kuroe who had met up with them&mdash;as well as Fear.

As a side note, everyone was dressed in school uniform apart from Kotetsu and Kuroe. Since they must head to school once it became time for the operation to start, it would be less of a hassle if they wore school uniform to begin with. Although there was probably no need to care about attire at all right now, but seeing as they were going to school, being in uniform was only natural. There was the feeling that adhering to this rule would be akin to evidence that the school still remained a place where they belonged.

"Let's go."

Fear spoke while looking ahead, without her usual Rubik's cube in her hand. Haruaki guessed that she had entrusted them to Konoha for the time being.

Conversely, she clenched her fist that now stood as her only weapon. With her back completely straight, without the slightest faltering in her eyes, she was very calm and collected&mdash;That was what Haruaki could see.

"I'll focus on defense, so Cow Tits, you guys take care of offense."

"You don't need to tell me that."

Taking point, Konoha tiptoed up the stairs to their destination, the entire fourth floor that was being used as a ''ballroom dance studio''. This place had excellent soundproofing and seemed a best fit for the requirement of being near the school.

No more hesitation. Considering the scheduled tasks, they must incapacitate Taciturn at least before the in-school team starts their operation at noon. If this location proved to be a dud, that could not be helped and they would simply have to rush to the next candidates.

Haruaki and company looked at one another quietly and nodded. Then Konoha broke the entrance's lock and quietly slipped inside. There was no one in the narrow space that looked like the lobby. It was quiet all around. Then they found a heavy door with a massive door handle.

Confirming one another's opinion by exchanging glances again, they opened the door and entered. This seemed to be a place for  many people to gather and practice dancing. A wide open space roughly the size of a classroom. One entire wall was made into a mirror to allow dancers to examine their own movements.

Then&mdash;There were two things that were exactly as expected, in a certain sense.

"Heeheehee, welcome. Although there is nothing here, please relax and take a good break."

The first prediction coming true was good news, namely, the woman described by Amanda was present in the classroom.

The second was one that could not be helped&mdash;namely, there were five or six knights standing around the woman.

"If only you were alone... But of course, developments are not going to unfold so smoothly."

Konoha grumbled with a frown then lowered her stance in preparation for combat.

In contrast, the flamboyantly dressed woman, Taciturn Chatterbox, simply curled her lips in a smile. Without moving, she remained sitting on a railing-like metal bar on the wall.

"Because Dainsleif already reported the stupid news to me that the idiot Coenraad had his communication device stolen, it's obviously conceivable that someone might attack me outside if you people were able to make contact as a result... Hence, I called for bodyguards."

"Hmph... I can't believe you are still so complacent and chose not to run. That being said, we do count our blessings that there is no need to waste time anymore."

"Indeed, because there's no guarantee that this place would be found for sure. Whether being discovered here or escaping to another noise-less place to be discovered by you people, chances are the same. All along, my mission is to execute the Lord's orders, to allow myself to issue additional hypnotic suggests any time, rather than arbitrarily running all over the place."

The woman was wearing stockings that were mismatched between left and right, a jacket with too many decorations, and gaudy clothing in vivid colors. Combined with a pointed hat reminiscent of a witch's, she looked somewhat like a clown.

Held in her right hand was a certain cone-shaped object, pointed downwards and swinging back and forth.

(That's the...!)

It was most likely the cursed megaphone «Demon's Mouth». It was one or two sizes larger than the megaphones one would normally see. Yellowed and decrepit, its coloration looked quite aged. Its major characteristic was that the cone's opening was covered up with a lid. This was to prevent the fact that even the user would be affected by its cursed power if the emitted sound was heard directly. After picking up the sound, the microphone inside the lid would transmit it to a small output speaker that was presumably kept in the school's broadcasting room right now, thereby issuing loathsome hypnotic suggestions to the students through the microphone of the school's public announcement system&mdash;

She must be stopped. Now that they had appeared before the enemy, they must not retreat at any cost. Given an opening in this situation, she could very well seize the chance to issue fatal orders to all the students in the school.

Hence, Konoha did not hesitate at all.

Without wasting further breath on words, she stepped forward as a sharp blade in human form. At the same time, Kotetsu dashed forward. Kuroe also extended hardened hair towards the «Demon's Mouth» in Taciturn's hand.

"Mode: «Killing Machine Masakado»!"

"Oh dear, you guys have to protect me properly."

Taciturn jumped down from the metal railing. The knights shielded her behind them and used their swords to intercept Kuroe's hair.

"Very well, you shall work as hard as you can! Knights, our victory condition is exceedingly simple, namely, the «Demon's Mouth» must be thoroughly protected&mdash;However, with risk comes opportunity. If you succeed in killing them here, the mission in this country could be considered essentially accomplished. I will certify you with perfect A as a present. Naturally, our Lord will also be delighted!"

Hearing her, the rest of the knights also drew their swords with a roar, stepping forward to engage Konoha and Kotetsu in battle.

"Haruaki, Kirika, you two fall back."

"O-Okay."

"...Understood."

Fear took a step forward to protect Haruaki and Kirika. But that was all. Clenching her fist, she stared intently at Konoha and Kotetsu's intense fight. If any knight were to rush out from between them, Fear probably intended to fight with her fists.

Compared to holding a drill in her tiny hand while attacking the knights proactively, which would be better? To be frank, Haruaki was not sure either. However, at least this was better than her transforming into a cube, giving off vibes of weakness and unease that did not suit her, trembling nonstop.

"By the way... Ooh~ Wah~ Another one got taken out. Seriously, it's gotten to the point where I wonder how meaningful my encouragements just now were. How odd~ There shouldn't be much time left before 'Dominionization' is completed, so you guys ought to be more durable and resilient than normal instead. How useless, show some more spirit, will you?"

"Speaking of spirit&mdash;We are not going to lose to you people!"

"No matter how much power they receive, small fries remain as small fries!"

Konoha and Kotetsu sent their respective opponent flying. By the time Haruaki noticed, the knights in charge of protecting Taciturn had been greatly thinned in number, leaving only one person standing&mdash;The remainder were either collapsed unconscious or sprawled on the floor, groaning.

Kuroe persisted in extending her hair towards Taciturn. Although the «Demon's Mouth» could not be snatched away so easily, at least this achieved the effect of containment.

Taciturn loaded the «Demon's Mouth» onto her shoulder then turned her neck as though going "oh dear oh dear."

"Ah~ Now this is bad. As expected of loathsome, filthy and nauseating Wathes. How strong, how strong. There seems to be no chance of victory for a mere auxiliary whose sneakiness might count as her only strength and a bunch of knights who only number six people no matter how strengthened their powers~"

Konoha suddenly frowned.

"...What diabolical plan are you coming up with now?"

"No no no, I'm just describing the truth as it is. We cannot win on our own. Hey, you guys&mdash;What do you think needs to be done during times like these?"

While blocking Kuroe's hair in front of her, a knight answered without looking back:

"A knight should act like a knight, willing to die for their cause!"

Hearing that, Taciturn grinned.

"Indeed, we are the Frontline Gathering Knights Dominion. Along with our Lord, the mission of gathering and destroying Wathes is everything to us&mdash;!"

Then she used the megaphone in her right hand to ''strike the wall behind her''.

"What...!?"

Haruaki was rendered speechless. What was she doing? Why do that? An act of surrender? Knowing she was going to lose, was she breaking the Wathe on her own initiative to release the students?

&mdash;Of course not. That kind of thing would be impossible.

''Struck by the impact against the wall, the lid covering the megaphone cracked and came loose, falling to the floor''.

The moment he saw that scene, Haruaki felt an intense chill across his spine. No way&mdash;

"You're going to use it!? But you'll be affected too!"

"How knowledgeable you are~ Furthermore, when issuing orders directly without transmitting to a long-distance speaker, the cursed power will increase to an incomparable extent. It's not something that can be resisted with willpower alone."

A compact device resembling a microphone could be seen among the remains of the broken lid on the floor. Presumably loosened from its socket, the microphone's wire was dangling, most likely unable to perform its function of picking up sound anymore. Taciturn was probably no longer able to send the megaphone's sounds to the school.

However, the danger level here was rapidly rising. Kuroe instantly sprang into action.

"...«Penetrator Yoshimasa»!"

"You're not going to succeed!"

The final knight turned himself into a shield to block Kuroe's hair. In addition to deflecting it with his sword, he also used his palm to catch the hair that was extending like a spear, making the hair pierce the center of his palm on purpose to allow him to ensnare the hair securely. The resulting bright red color made Konoha frown.

"Fufu... Now that direct orders will be given, I can issue hypnotic suggestions that normally do not succeed, i.e. those that threaten the targets' lives directly. What will you do? Would you like mutually assured destruction? By the way, let me tell you that this is a closed space. Whether covering your ears will succeed in blocking out the sound or not, it's something you won't know until you try it."

"...!"

"By the way, let me tell you this, whether Wathes or humans, the effects work on anything that is self-aware. As soon as I order 'die,' even if you turn back into your forms as tools, your consciousness will still die off."

Taciturn's shoulders shook with delight while she spoke:

"Heeheehee, none of you have apparently noticed... This thing has a very high chance of killing anyone, as long as I have no concern for my own life. In other words, this is a Wathe that can achieve mutually assured destruction with almost 100%, you know? What a shame~ So, what will you do? Would you like to die together with me? Or will you choose something else?"

Everyone stopped moving. Both sides glared at each other. Taciturn was serious. She was already prepared to die for the Knights Dominion's cause, even to the point of bringing Haruaki's group down in mutual destruction. What to do? They must not let her escape now, but they must not die with her either. What to do&mdash;

Konoha was the first to take action. She suddenly turned her head back and yelled:

"Haruaki-kun! Hurry and cover your ears&mdash;"

"&mdash;<b>Hört!!</b>"

Hence, Taciturn reacted and instantly raised the megaphone to her lips to shout.

A hoarse and grainy voice came out of the megaphone. One could sense the surrounding air instantly fill up with a cursed presence.

According to Un Izoey, this was the keyword uttered prior to issuing hypnotic suggestions. As soon as the one listened to the next words&mdash;

Once she said the word "die"&mdash;Their entire group was going to do so together with her&mdash;

But these thoughts only lingered in his mind for an instant.

"Haruaki!"

Fear and Konoha both collided into him, pushing him down on the ground. Both of them even reached out gruffly to cover his ears up with their hands. Idiots! Then you two will&mdash;! As soon as Haruaki looked up, he saw Kuroe's hair cover up Fear, Konoha and Kotetsu's ears like earmuffs.

But during her efforts to protect everyone, Kuroe's face suddenly turned to alarm as she watched a certain scene.

Haruaki also followed her gaze&mdash;He then understood why she was making such a face.

There were two reasons.

One, Taciturn was running towards the exit as fast as she could.

Two&mdash;Without covering her ears at all, going so far as to brush away Kuroe's hair that intended to protect her ears like with Fear and the others, Kirika was chasing after Taciturn.

Haruaki's entire body froze as he yelled:

"No, Class Rep&mdash;!"

But he had no way of knowing whether he was actually shouting loudly or that his voice was reaching her ears or not.



(Tsk... What imbeciles. I was giving you a chance to escape.)

Taciturn clicked her tongue mentally.

Just as mentioned earlier, their victory condition was thorough protection of the «Demon's Mouth». Indeed, killing Yachi Haruaki's group here would be a perfect Grade A outcome, but there was no need to obsess over this result. Despite the many losses incurred, the option of escaping also had sufficient value to be certified Grade B.

Hence, if there was a chance to escape, fleeing the place ought to be prioritized over killing them&mdash;That was what Taciturn originally concluded.

If the enemy tried to obstruct her escape, then she had no choice but to use hypnotic suggestions. The hypnosis would definitely work 100% on that reckless girl who was trying to block her way, right? As for Haruaki and the others who had their ears covered, there was probably a 70% probability of success.

Under such conditions, the hypnotic suggestion could not be too long. Ambiguous and complicated suggestions were also unsuitable. She could only use an exceedingly simple sentence. Ultimately&mdash;She had no choice.

Indeed, her victory condition was to protect the «Demon's Mouth» thoroughly&mdash;

Not ''protecting Taciturn Chatterbox thoroughly''.

(Yes. However, if they were to capture me then destroy this Wathe, there would be absolutely no benefit to me~ I must prevent this Grade D outcome at any cost. This would be best in the Lord's interests.)

Hence, in the end, for the sake of a Grade C outcome, the lowest tolerable...

Taciturn opted for mutual annihilation as she had threatened earlier. It was definitely going to work on the unguarded girl before her and would eliminate a number of these troublesome characters with extremely high probability. Not a pointless course of action, probably.

Taciturn calmly raised the «Demon's Mouth» to her lips and ordered:

"''Everyone listening, commit suicide immediately''."

The job of auxiliaries included gathering information. Hence, Taciturn recognized the girl before her. Ueno Kirika, Yamimagari Pakuaki's younger sister, the wearer of the cursed bondage suit «Gimestorante's Love» which conferred the cursed power of immortality.

Facing those released cursed words, even that cursed power of immortality and its ilk would be meaningless.

Because this hypnotic suggestion would compel her to die by her own volition&mdash;Her only way of freeing herself from that cursed power of immortality was presumably removing «Gimestorante's Love» then dying.

In fact, Taciturn could see the girl, who was blocking her path, reach for her own sleeve.

At the same time, Taciturn could feel her own tongue starting to tremble like mad. An irrepressible urge&mdash;loathsome and filthy&mdash;an urge known as a curse. Immediately, her front teeth moved autonomously to bite her own tongue. Then came excruciating pain. The stench of blood began to spread inside her mouth. Biting one's own tongue was extraordinarily impractical as a method of suicide, but without proper and timely treatment, it would still lead to death. Dying for the Lord, she felt rather honored, except for the displeasing fact that the process involved a loathsome curse.

The intense pain was sharpening her five senses and time felt like it was moving exceedingly slowly. From the corner of her eye, she saw one of the knights whose legs had been broken by Kotetsu. Raising the sword in his hand, he stabbed himself in the chest. No one was spared once they heard the hypnotic suggestion.

Then&mdash;The girl in front of her.

She rolled her sleeve up to her elbow.

And stopped there.

She did not undress any further. After merely rolling her sleeve, she stopped her action.

(What...!?)

With fierce determination in her eyes, she stared straight at Taciturn.

''She was not hypnotized''.

Taciturn was greatly shocked.

Why? How could she possibly have resisted? This was a closed space surrounded by soundproof walls. At extremely close range, a hypnotic suggestion issued at maximum strength without transmitting through a speaker. How could she possibly have defied the suicide command&mdash;? 

"Sorry, I can't hear what you're saying."

The girl said with a solemn expression.

At the same time, she pointed lightly at her ear.

"I was thinking you might try to use hypnosis, so just now&mdash;while you were breaking the lid&mdash;I damaged my eardrums first."

No way! Just a second after Taciturn stopped moving&mdash;

A certain object pried her lips open and entered her mouth, wrapping around her tongue.

"Let's see... Is this how it's used?"

As soon as she heard the girl speaking softly, her tongue transmitted the sensation of intense pain, intense pain, intense intense intense pain. The cloth-like object wrapped around her tongue&mdash;It was absorbing her blood. That kind of pain was difficult to articulate.

"Gah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Confronted with this slow torture of pain that would drive one insane...

Unable to withstand it any longer, Taciturn fainted.



While Haruaki was staring in shock, Kirika picked up the «Demon's Mouth» that had fallen from Taciturn's hand.

Glancing at the knights who were stabbing themselves with weapons or committing suicide by biting their tongues like Taciturn, she directed her lips to the «Demon's Mouth» and called out:

"&mdash;<b>Hört!!</b> Stop committing suicide!"

Outside his covered ears, Haruaki could sense a grim reaper's presence deliberating ominously whether to enter his body or not, riding upon Taciturn's voice to approach discreetly&mdash;It instantly drifted away as a result of Kirika's command.

Seeing the knights release their weapons and collapse on the floor, Kirika said:

"So that's how it works, I see... To use it any further would be absolutely ridiculous. I am not obliged to force myself to help you people either."

Then Kirika looked towards Haruaki and the others and nodded as though saying "Are you okay?"

Haruaki looked at her right arm. Wrapped around her right wrist, also twisting like a snake and wrapped around Taciturn's tongue, the ribbon-like object was not the «Tragic Black River» that had been taken away by the enemy.

Instead, it was the cursed bandage that used to belong to Amanda.

"Oh... This is «Chupacabra Bandage», a bandage that is able to heal wounds while absorbing blood and inflicting intense pain. When Amanda came under the protection of Himura&mdash;the Lab Chief's Nation&mdash;this thing presumably came under their safekeeping too. That being said, I've no idea why Pakuaki handed this thing over to me, how absolutely ridiculous..."

While listening to Kirika murmur as though talking to herself, Haruaki gulped.

Indeed, he did have many questions about that bandage. However, there were more important matters at the moment. Haruaki stood up.

"D-Don't be so reckless! Class Rep, what the heck were you thinking?"

Then he approached Kirika. He really thought his heart was going to stop just now. What happened next was not something he could accept. Even with his ears covered, he could understand everything simply from Kirika's gestures just now. To think she damaged her own eardrums, she must have used Kuroe's hardened hair that had been severed by the enemy.

After Haruaki strode over to her, Kirika frowned and said:

"...Sorry. I can't hear anything, but I think it'll heal up very soon."

Seeing her troubled expression, Haruaki sighed.

Kirika's face looked like a child who knew she was about to be scolded by her parents.

Since she was unable to hear, I'll do this at least&mdash;Hence, Haruaki definitely acted as though he were scolding a child, making a fist to give Kirika's head a light knock. Then&mdash;

"Ah..."

Clearly, he was angry.

But for some reason, Kirika relaxed her expression and made a demure and happy smile.