Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume5 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 5===

&mdash;Memories of one millimeter, she recalled them.


Entire families committing suicide due to poverty was a common thing. Having survived that kind of tragedy, Kururi was unwanted among her relatives. Hence, she was entrusted to be raised by the similarly unwanted uncle.

The uncle was a freak and completely unworthy of being called human. Kururi was often beaten by him.

After roughly one year of adoption, he suddenly dragged her into an empty room in the house one day. The uncle was carrying a chair, a ruler, packing tape and a kitchen cleaver.

She thought "I'm gonna be killed" but was powerless to resist.

The uncle asked her to stand at the edge of the room. Once she reached the spot, the uncle continued speaking.

Smile.

Although she had long forgotten how to smile, she still forced her face to distort and squeezed out a smile as he ordered. Instead of approaching her, the uncle moved slightly away and for some reason, started marking lines on the floorboards with the packing tape. Then he turned the chair around and sat on it. Next, he simply stared at her. His chin resting against the back of the chair, he swung the cleaver, his empty gaze staring at the twisted face of the elementary schooler niece who was displaying something that could not be called a smile. Then after a few dozen minutes, he said "That's enough" and left the room.

The same thing happened the next day, except with one difference. The uncle used his ruler to measure out one millimeter accurately, then stuck a piece of tape on the floor and moved the chair by merely a millimeter. Then sitting there, he held the cleaver as he stared at his niece's undeveloped body and artificial smile.

Same for the next day. Same for the next day after that. Same for the day after the day after the day after the day after the day after that.

One millimeter. One millimeter. One millimeter by one millimeter by one millimeter by one millimeter by one millimeter, the uncle slowly moved closer.

The torture of one millimeter. When the remaining distance shrunk to zero, what was going to happen? Kururi had no idea. Completely no idea. Will she be killed? Will she be violated? Or will there be some other terrifying behavior?

Under such unknown conditions, under such unknown conditions, under such unknown conditions, the millimeters continued to add up, one at a time. Kururi simply smiled and stared at that one millimeter, the same way her uncle was staring at her face. That one millimeter was everything to her. Her world, her life, her fear, her uncle, her future, her past, her mother who had clicked her tongue in disdain at Kururi who survived alone. There was probably no one else in the world who would stare at one millimeter like her, right? There was probably no one who would squander her entire existence in this continual staring, right?

Indeed. Hence, hence she&mdash;

More than anyone else in this world, she understood this distance of a millimeter.



The foot turned and moved with the knife as though they were one. A high-speed counterattack performed while evading Kururi's strike. Using the "distance" she understood, Kururi saw her opponent's movements clearly while feeling the mascot costume's surface getting shaved off, at the same time steadying her own steps&mdash;However, the dark-skinned girl's movements were too extraordinary. Her head was not located where one would expect a head, her torso was not located where one would expect a torso, while the knife held in her foot flew from outrageous directions. Although Kururi barely managed to evade, landing a hit with her own knife was proving to be an impossible challenge.

Whenever a slight distance opened up between the two combatants, the girl's left leg would suddenly extend.

The leg that was not wielding the knife. But instead, Kururi could see something resembling a string that stretched from between the big toe and the second toe.

No, it was&mdash;a bowstring.

Kururi only noticed it because the hand-cuffed girl flipped her own skirt up and took out countless short darts from the holder hidden beneath.

Placing a dart on the bowstring that seemed to be made of rubber, she pulled using her cuffed hands. Kururi stared wide-eyed at the bowstring's exceptional elasticity as well as the abnormal leg strength that could withstand that force.

&mdash;Shot out.

She did not seem to care whether she would lose balance but simply moved herself virtually by feeling alone. The dart missed Kururi's face by four millimeters but the shooter did not show any disappointment in her failure.

"Lab Chief, please give orders."

"Yeah, I guess we really are this hero's targets... Whatever, let's just escape for now. After all, a higher priority unknown is waiting."

"Affirmative."

The man suddenly disappeared without trace. Then the girl leapt over the roof fencing as though bouncing off the floor.

Of course, Kururi had no choice but to give chase. If she lost them now, she would have to start all over again.

Then&mdash;She must find out no matter what.

As she began chasing after those two, she thought "But..." to herself.

She originally thought a sneak attack might work but it did not. That girl was completely flawless and without openings. In that case, it was necessary to rely on advantage in numbers&mdash;But cooperating with Oratorie ended up in failure. Had they attacked in full force in concert, the result might have been different. However, that woman only cared about her own goal, thus leading to her demise. Not only did she get herself injured, but she also rendered Kururi's efforts pointless. Trying to help that woman by suppressing the displeasure of seeing her past self became totally unnecessary. Kururi wanted to vomit simply at the memory of the way the woman looked as she pummeled the girl with the belt.

Oratorie could not be used anymore but Kururi needed manpower. Then what should she do&mdash;

In response to this problem, she immediately found a simple answer.

Just make use of those people.

The problem was that they probably would not help even if she asked them honestly&mdash;

(It doesn't matter even if they don't agree to help. I just need to use them one-sidedly through a baiting approach... But how should I create that chance?)

There was no time to worry over such matters. As long as she stayed close and observed their situation, some sort of method would just present itself. In the end, it was necessary to stop pursuing those people from the Lab Chief's Nation.

Kururi went over the fence and grabbed the drainpipe. Then using it as support, she slid towards the ground in one go.