Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume5 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 6===

"Those two girls, I wonder if they're searching seriously..."

"I'm sure they should be searching very seriously. But before worrying about them, I think we need to fulfill our own duties first. Okay, Yachi, next is that cleaning equipment closet."

Receiving instructions from Kirika who continued to walk with her hands against his back, Haruaki opened the cleaning equipment closet in the corridor.

"Oh, there's one! Let's see... Drats, nothing inside!"

"That's six already, right? Our hands are almost completely full."

"The superintendent's office is quite close, so let's make a detour there first. If Zenon-san is there, we could even get a summary of our progress. If those two girls happen to make a detour there as well, we could check out their progress too."

Hence, Haruaki began to make his way to the superintendent's office with Kirika pushing his back. He had already grown quite accustomed to this state, but whether he himself was used to it was not the main issue.

"Class Rep, are you okay?"

"Yeah... I'm okay. Because... there's still your back."

Haruaki felt her patting his shoulder lightly a few times. Since Kirika was carrying dolls in one hand, he only felt this on his right shoulder.

Hearing someone say "there's still your back" actually felt rather embarrassing. Haruaki knew that he was not too reliable usually but felt quite happy for the fact that he was being slightly useful for once.

"Really? That's good... Seriously, how could that guy do something like this? Isn't he your older brother, Class Rep, and you're his sister? But..."

"By this point... I've long given up&mdash;on seeing him as my brother."

Her voice was ice-cold. Haruaki could feel her slightly tightening her grip on his shoulder. But that gesture did not feel like she was asking him to stop talking.

"You thought differently in the past?"

"In the past, huh..."

"Nothing much, you don't need to tell me if you don't want to."

"Fufu." Kirika laughed wryly.

"You're really a nice guy to a fault. I find it incredible that you've never asked about this until now... But it's true, I should take this opportunity to tell you a bit about my family. However, it dates back to before that guy started calling himself 'Yamimagari Pakuaki.'"

"Ah. Sure enough, that isn't his real name, right?"

"Of course. How could such a crazy name exist in this world. Besides, the family name is different from mine."

Haruaki had originally thought they might be half-siblings or something. However, Kirika seemed to read his mind and added: "That guy definitely ''was'' my brother by blood."

"So... My mother passed away from illness not long after my birth, but I still had my father. He was a private researcher employed by some rich tycoon or dilettante. Although I have very little recollection, his research should be in folkloristics or something like that. The tycoon was fascinated with cursed tools&mdash;Wathes, in other words&mdash;and hence pursued investigations as a rich man's hobby."

"Right~ There do indeed exist a lot of these rich and fearless people."

"Perhaps. Next, let's talk about that guy. My father was apparently highly talented, but that guy surpassed him. Summed up in a single word, he is a genius. That guy graduated from high school with honors and finished university abroad as the top student in his graduating class. Then he became a researcher like my father. After returning to Japan, he began working under the same employer as my father's&mdash;That was when he started to act strange."

"He changed completely?"

"No, not really. He was still himself, personality completely unchanged&mdash;An overly playful genius, free and unfettered. Speaking of which, he ended up like that precisely because he's a genius. In other words, entering an environment that allowed him to make full use of his natural talent was what caused him to settle into his role as a genius. Let me ask you, Yachi, what do you think are the conditions for someone to maximize his potential as a genius? What do you think is required?"

No idea. Haruaki fell silent. Then he heard Kirika sigh.

"Unknowns."

"......?"

"For example, genius talent cannot be maximized if all one faced were an elementary student's arithmetic exercises. A genius requires 'challenges that no one else could solve.' In other words, Wathes. By becoming aware of the unknowns brought about by the existence of cursed tools, that guy awakened something within himself."

"You mean 'discovering the best research subject' or something along those lines?"

"Normally speaking, that should be it. But there's still too many details I'm not clear on, so I'll just talk about what I know. When I was about to enter middle school, my father and that guy stopped coming home. After I waited for a few days, that guy returned. Then after saying something incomprehensible all on his own like 'Don't you feel that this world is full of unknowns?' He proceeded to ask me: 'Our father is dead, do you want to come with me? Or do you want to live alone? What are your plans?' As a young girl, what choice did I have apart from following him? That's how simple it was."

Haruaki originally wanted to ask "How did your father&mdash;" but he shut his mouth. Judging from the force from the hand gripping his shoulder, he knew it was not a question that should be asked recklessly. Furthermore, Kirika probably did not know the answer either... Or perhaps, she was not told the answer.

"Then that guy started calling himself 'Yamimagari Pakuaki' and started establishing the organization of the Lab Chief's Nation. Apparently by that time, the organization's foundations were already firmly entrenched... I don't know what methods he used, but he probably took over his employer's power and influence perhaps? Money and connections, the original research staff, Wathes as experimental subjects, there must have been plenty that he could make use of."

Haruaki kept racking his brain for meaningful responses, but all he could manage were exceedingly ordinary comments. He really found himself quite useless, but he knew that was the limit of his abilities.

"I see... It must have been difficult for you, Class Rep. However, it does clear up one mystery for me."

"Just one? Many mysteries should have cleared up instead, right?"

"No, what I mean is a mystery that I couldn't figure out from a very long time ago. It was because your cooking skills are clearly much better than an average girl's. So it turns out because your mother was absent in your life, you probably had to cook for your father and brother from a young age. Perhaps that explains it..."

This resulted in a momentary freeze frame. Then&mdash;

"Haha... Ahahahaha!"

Haruaki could hear delightful laughter coming from behind and nonstop patting on his back.

"To think I expected you to say something different, how absolutely ridiculous. That really isn't any major mystery. Besides, to hear praise coming from you whom I've never beaten in our lunch contests&mdash;Fufu. How troubling, seriously, absolutely ridiculous..."

This time, the touch of her hand felt lighter, closer to a caress, but Haruaki felt greater pressure applied. Hence, he glanced back, only to find Kirika's hand slightly more withdrawn than previous&mdash;in other words, resting against Haruaki's back. Perhaps the sense of loneliness caused by the collar might increase again?

Then Haruaki and Kirika arrived quickly at the superintendent's office. As soon as the door opened, they were immediately met with the sight of a mountain of dolls.

"Wow, there's a whole pile already."

"Welcome back, Yachi-sama. And... Ueno-san."

With paper spread out on the desk, Zenon was engaged in some kind of task. Her eyes seemed slightly suspicious. The was because they had not explained to Zenon the matter of Kirika&mdash;namely, the whole backstory of why someone placed dolls containing a bomb in the school. Haruaki's group had simply made up an excuse about enemies attacking the school, similar to Bivorio's visit last time.

"Uh&mdash;So naturally, I asked you for help! After all, you're very discreet with secrets, ummm... And a good person as well!"

"...So that's what's going on."

"Is that so? So long as you think that this is appropriate, Yachi-sama, I have no objections. Of course, the more helpers the better&mdash;Speaking of helpers, I tried calling Ganon-oneesama for assistance but couldn't reach her, unfortunately. Without any recourse, I personally investigated the vicinity of the infirmary myself... And found her cellphone on the desk. Very likely, she went to check out the cultural festival without taking her phone."

"She's really easy-going huh... So, how's the overall situation?"

"We have currently found twenty-three dolls, but regrettably, none of them are the target. I am currently marking on this map of the school all the searched locations and where dolls have been discovered."

"That's really quite a lot. By the way, I've got six dolls here, so that makes a total of twenty-nine."

Haruaki reported to Zenon the places he had searched and discovered dolls to mark down on the map. It looked like half the school had already been searched.

"Both the number of dolls and the places investigated have passed the halfway mark, but we still haven't found the target... Damn it! Oh by the way, since you have so many dolls here, did Fear or Konoha happen to visit?"

"Yes, they have both visited once each... When I asked them to report the progress of their search, Konoha-sama seemed to react in a manner similar to that doll's state..."

Haruaki looked over to where Zenon pointed. Among the mountain of dolls, there was one in particular that was ragged and tattered for some reason. Indeed, it was almost as if someone had experienced something unbearably vexing and consequently took out their frustrations on the doll.

"Although I have no idea what the cause might be, she seemed rather furious."

"...I can imagine too."

Haruaki agreed ambiguously. What on earth could have happened to Konoha?

"Then what about Fear?"

"As for Fear-sama&mdash;Well, she seemed to be gradually getting more and more anxious. It felt as though she was imagining some sort of unpleasant future."

Haruaki frowned with worry but immediately changed his mind to think "It can't be helped." After all, the target was still not found despite having recovered more than half of the dolls. Although he was not going to say "it's time to hurry," neither would it be appropriate to be leisurely going "it'll be found eventually."

"In any case, we must find the target doll as soon as possible... So, Class Rep!"

"Yes, let's continue on our search."

Controlled from behind by Kirika, Haruaki started looking around again. At this moment, he heard Zenon's questioning voice.

"...So, Yachi-sama, are you suffering from some sort of punishment that restricts your freedom of movement?"

"Uh&mdash;There are many reason for this! Please don't mind it!"

"I see..."

Next, Haruaki and Kirika left the superintendent's office as though they were fleeing. Only now was Haruaki confronted with the urgency of getting rid of Kirika's collar in addition to the obvious mission of preventing the bomb from exploding. After all, he really hated the strange way he was getting used to this situation of conjoined twins.

Just as he wondered "what does Class Rep think about this?" and was about to turn his head back, however&mdash;

"Hey Yachi, please pay attention in front of you. Otherwise, don't blame me for what happens next."

"Oh, yeah. If I keep looking left and right, it feels like someone's going to just roll over me."

"I-I haven't been pushing you forward like mad, have I? If you're about to collide into something, just halt your footsteps. That's not what I mean anyway... Since that guy set up this kind of game, the two of them shouldn't be attacking us directly in theory, but it's best not to be too careless. That's what I was talking about."

Haruaki understood what she meant. Indeed, they should be vigilant.

As low as the chances of being attacked directly may seem, he was currently separated from Fear and Konoha. Although that scenario should not be happening, but what if&mdash;What if they encountered an enemy attack under these conditions?

Haruaki understood that it would be a very serious situation.



Next, they made their way to the calligraphy classroom located on the second floor of the school building.

"Hmm&mdash;Not a single person here."

Simply seeing the sign that read "Calligraphy Club's Exhibition" was enough to get a strong feeling that there would not be any people. Sure enough, the hunch ended up correct and the room turned out to be deserted. There were only two occupants, namely, Haruaki and Kirika.

The words "Please feel free to look around" were written in large characters on the blackboard. On top of the stationary desks, calligraphy paper was suitably arranged to display spectacularly flowing strokes of ink that were impossible to tell if they were written well or not. Logically speaking, they should have left at least one club member to attend to things... But sadly enough, even the calligraphy club members themselves probably realized that this was not an attractive exhibit. Seeing as this was the case, surely they must have decided to cancel the boring job and simply allow their members to enjoy the cultural festival fully. They made the right choice.

"But judging from the fact that there isn't even a single visitor, you can't really blame the calligraphy club's members for leaving..."

"It's not like it's a bad thing, right? Deserted is better for us, actually. This gives us a chance to investigate."

In order to avoid missing any hiding places, the two of them searched thoroughly but swiftly. However, their search ended fruitlessly without even an empty doll turning up. Still, there was no time to feel depressed and just as the pair was about to set off for the next area&mdash;

Visitors arrived.

However, those were definitely not visitors one would hope to find&mdash;In other words, they had not arrived for the purpose of admiring the calligraphy.

"Ohoh, I suppose this would be considered perfect convenience."

"...Eh?"

His mind filled with question marks, Haruaki was completely baffled. He could only react in this manner to the sight before him&mdash;two completely incomprehensible figures. Simply stated&mdash;


''One was a wet woman youkai while the other was someone suited up from head to toe in a skull masked costume''.

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