Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume9 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 5===

Haruaki opened his eyes and woke up to someone's cellphone alarm clock. Wrapped in the blankets provided by the benevolent priest, the group had squeezed together and slept in the living room. At this moment, everyone began to get up from the tatami floor with a rustling sound. Naturally, it was not exactly comfortable but no one had any complaints. Besides, having heating was much better than staying outdoors for three hours.

"Hwa..."

"Good morning, Haruaki-kun."

"Oh, good morning. Although it was just a brief nap, I feel like I'm well rested. I'm really thankful to the priest."

"Yes. He mentioned that he would get up at roughly the same time as us. We really must thank him again."

"Mmm... Muuunnn..."

"Kiririn~? Ohoh, this is a getting up crisis. If you don't get up, I'm gonna take a photo of you still hugging the blanket with your butt in the air~! Then I'll add a caption along the lines of 'Title: Imitation of a Steamed Bun~'"

Perhaps prone to falling back to sleep in the mornings, Kirika continued to hug her blanket without moving. Kuroe raised her hand and patted Kirika on her bottom... Haruaki really wished she would pat Kirika's shoulder or back instead.

"By the way, the priest said we can also use the washroom. Then let's accept his kind offer and wash our faces. Besides, Ueno-san still hasn't gotten up yet."

"Sure." Just as Haruaki nodded in agreement, Fear, who had been lying on the tatami, suddenly got up with a grim expression.

"Good morning, Fear. I know you're all fired up to catch those girls, but go wash your face first&mdash;"

"...!"

"Woah! Why are you using your fists to turn my face as soon as you got out of bed!? Is there some kind of misunderstanding!?"

...Right&mdash;Fear seemed to be saying. Suddenly, with a serious expression, she took out the cellphone from her pocket and tapped away to enter a brief message on the screen:

'You shameless brat!'

"I'm not asking you to attack me with the cellphone! What did I do to you?"

Haruaki grabbed Fear's arm to stop her from pressing the cellphone against his cheek, finally escaping her attacks. Completely inexplicable. Fear pouted and shook off Haruaki's hand, then typed on the cellphone again.

'I had a dream.'

"Aha... The first dream of the year. Then let me ask, what did you dream about?"

'Before going to sleep, you mentioned that dreaming of Mount Fuji, a hawk and an eggplant would be very lucky.'<ref>'''Hatsuyume'''(初夢): meaning "first dream," hatsuyume refers to the first dream of the new year, which is supposed to predict a person's luck over the incoming year. It is considered particularly auspicious to dream of Mount Fuji, a hawk and an eggplant. One theory is that the belief stems from the fact that Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan, hawks are intelligent and strong, while the word for eggplant (nasu) sounds the same as achieving something (成す, also pronounced nasu).[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsuyume]</ref>

"Now that you mention it, I think I did."

It's all your fault! Fear seemed to be complaining while baring her fangs, pressing the cellphone buttons with greater fervor. Perhaps getting used to the process, Fear's typing speed was much faster than when she first started, although there were a few missing characters occasionally from typing too impatiently.

'You all appeared. Kuroe used a remote control to transform Mount Fuji into a giant robot then Kirika shrieked with laughter as she cracked her whip and sat on top. Meanwhile, a completely nude Cow Tits shot down a hawk with an exorcism arrow then proceeded to take giant bites as she ate it raw.'

"What kind of chaotic dream is that..."

"Rather than chaotic, why is my image so weird!? I-I can't believe how this child would treat me in this manner right at the very start of the new year...!"

Peering from the side at the cellphone in Fear's hand, Konoha frowned and groaned. With trembling shoulders, Fear continued to type:

'Then there's the shameless brat! You were holding an eggplant while going "Don't worry, shove it in! Shove it in!' and approaching me with a lewd grin! Totally shameless!'
[[image:C3 09-116.jpg|thumb]]

"Blaming this kind of dream on me really bothers me!"

While the group was in a clamor, the priest returned to the living room. "Looks like everyone slept well." He commented without any intention of irony, causing them to feel embarrassed. At this moment, Kirika also got up so the group went to the washroom together.

One after another, they used cold water to wash their faces. First was Kirika who looked the most sleepy, then came Fear followed by Haruaki. While casually watching Konoha wash her face, Kirika spoke up, apparently completely awake at last:

"It ended up developing into a completely unexpected start for the new year."

"...Yeah."

Haruaki nodded lightly and looked towards Fear. Fear originally wanted to type on the cellphone but immediately stopped. After pressing the delete key a good many times, she wrote something new. Finally, with a slightly lonely expression, she held out the cellphone before Haruaki and the rest.

'Sorry, it's my fault for being too careless.'

"No, that's not what I meant. I was just thinking how unexpected the situation is. This isn't your fault, Fear-kun, I'm not trying to blame this on anyone."

"Yeah, so you should relax. We'll immediately help demand the return of your voice... Oh, but just as always, I'm not sure if I'll be able to help, that's all."

Haruaki spoke with a wry smile. Fear bowed her head slightly, her fingers hovering over the cellphone's keys&mdash;Then she ended up not typing anything.

"What's the matter?"

Only after Haruaki asked did Fear begin to type. Very slowly, she smiled with a bit of loneliness.

'Even if I remember how to type, it's not enough. There's clearly so much I wanna say, but typing cannot keep up.'

Then she immediately pressed the delete key.

The words disappeared.

The words, which Fear had devoted her full effort to say, easily disappeared just like that.

But Haruaki was not going to forget. This was even less likely to forget compared to actually listening to her words by ear. The words just now were Fear's true thoughts. Her current expression was Fear's true feelings. Hence, he could not forget. Furthermore, he must brand them into his heart.

(Yes, that's right... We must demand the return of her voice.)

With that, an ordinary New Year would surely return instantly. Joyous and lively, irreplaceable everyday time together would start to flow again as usual.

Hence, Haruaki stroked Fear's silver hair vigorously as he said:

"Oh right, people do say that first dreams will come true. Although that chaotic dream of yours can't possibly come true literally&mdash;in a certain sense, it will be fulfilled, right?"

"...?"

"Like right now, the feeling of everyone together, noisy and lively. In other words&mdash;This year will be no different from usual, so there's nothing to worry about."

Fear smiled lightly then shook her head as though embarrassed, shaking off Haruaki's hand that was on her head. Next, as though with renewed vigor&mdash;or rather, pouting with slight displeasure&mdash;she began to type on the cellphone at the same time:

'Shameless brat, in other words, what happened earlier basically means this. Because first dreams will come true, you very well might really try to shove eggplants into my body in the future. Then you'll force me to obediently accept&mdash;'

"Shove eggplants... into...?"

Looking at the cellphone screen from the side, Kirika instantly glared viciously at Haruaki. He frantically explained:

"Y-You were still sleeping just now, Class Rep, so you may not be aware, but we're talking about her first dream! This has absolutely nothing to do with me in reality. The content of her dream was completely inexplicable!"

'In the past, you have said inexplicable stuff like "It'll fit! Let's just put the front end in first!"'

"Oh... To think that such specific words have appeared, how concerning. Such specific dreams usually appear as the result of certain memories from reality. In other words... Yachi, perhaps you have spoken such words in the past indeed...!"

'That's right! Every time an incident ends, you say that kind of thing while shoving it in! Shoving into my most embarrassing spot!'

"That's something else, right!?"

"S-Something else? Th-That's even more... A-A-Absolutely ridiculous!"

"Class Rep, you should already know about the Indulgence Disks, right!? Could it be that you're still not awake?"

Amidst the usual voices, there was indeed one person's share missing.

But this noisy clamor did indeed allow one to predict that the usual times were about to return very soon.