Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 7===

Leaving the apartment, Haruaki glanced at his cellphone to find many text messages received from Konoha. He had not noticed earlier because he had set it to mute.

"W-What happened I am very worried but with Ueno-san you should be safe but if anything were to happen I would still feel very worried in any case!"<!--no intervening punctuation in the text message-->

A rambling series of incomprehensible words. Anyway, Haruaki simply replied, informing her that he had accompanied Kirika home because she fainted. There was probably no need to tell Konoha anything further for the moment. Perhaps Konoha was aware of Kirika's recent condition at school, she understood immediately.

Then Haruaki met up with Konoha at the business district.

"I couldn't find either of them."

"Hmm... Well, Alice might be quite difficult to find if she decided to hide. But at any rate, we've got to find Fear. She looked a bit strange, let's hope she didn't fall into her self-abusive mode and do strange things."

"That's so true. I hope she never jumps into the sea again."

Haruaki felt that Fear probably would not go that far, but it really was quite worrying. In any case, she had to be found&mdash;Just as he was thinking to himself, Fear was found with unexpected ease.

She was standing before a retail electronics store in the business district, staring blankly at the LCD television displayed at the entrance.

"...What... is going on...? What are the chances..."

"Hey Fear, we finally found you. I can't believe you rushed out on your own."

As he patted her lightly on the shoulder, Fear turned around to face him in surprise. Then&mdash;

"Watch this! It's about to repeat again!"

"Owwwwwww! You're twisting my neck off, it's going to twist off!"

Clamped by her hands, Haruaki's face was brought close to the television. The screen was showing news and currently reporting the discovery of a new cube-shaped corpse.

Perhaps taken from her identification documents, the newest victim's portrait was displayed near the edge of the screen&mdash;

"Damn it, another one... Hmm? Eh, why does it feel like I've seen this person before?"

"You must have. So did I."

"Me too... Hmm, I've seen this face recently... Ah!"

As Konoha gasped, Haruaki also recalled. This was probably a picture taken from a photo album or something, right? The woman's face on the screen had very defined facial features like a model. Although he had some recollection, it felt dissonant at the same time, because the hair color was different from what he saw a few days ago. Indeed, this woman was&mdash;

"The first customer at the beauty parlor's reopening...?"

"That's right. Then there was another one, shown on the television just now, the previous victim whose face I also recall. Her face is very similar to one of the customers sitting on the sofa when Alice was getting her haircut."

Haruaki had not paid special attention to the victims' faces. After all, perhaps because very few clues have surfaced, the victims faces had not received special coverage.

"Eh? What... is this about...?"

"No idea. But if it's not coincidence or a mistake in recognition&mdash;"

Staring at the screen, Fear gulped and spoke:

"&mdash;Perhaps we've found the ''point of commonality''."

In other words, "customers who get haircuts at the beauty parlor will be murdered," was that what was implied?

"N-No no, wait a minute. Perhaps it could be as you said, a mistake in recognition...? That said, I do recall a visit from the person shown just now..."

"Even Kuroe herself would not be able to remember every single customer, right? There's no way to confirm this."

"I want to confirm it... Is there any other way?"

"Then we need a way to find out the faces of the beauty parlor's customers... But wouldn't that require security monitoring? But Kuroe's shop doesn't have... that kind of thing... installed...?"

In the middle of speaking, Haruaki realized. Or rather, he recalled what happened during the opening of "Dan-no-ura."

Indeed, Kuroe's shop was not equipped with security monitoring. However&mdash;

'Ah, that reminds me, I must reposition the camera in my store to face yours, Kuroe-chan!'

'This way I'll be able to record Kuroe-chan's lovely face every day!'

The person bearing strange title of "the chairman of the central shopping street's Kuroe-chan fan club," had pointed his shop's security camera towards the "Dan-no-ura"&mdash;Haruaki and company had witnessed it with their own eyes.



Returning to the shopping street, they knocked on the electric appliance store's metal shutters to ask the owner to provide security camera footage. Since it was recorded on a DVD, they decided to borrow a player together as well. Of course, this went through various twists and turns, but where there was a sincere will, there was a way&mdash;More concretely, this so-called "sincere will" was a promise to provide the shopkeeper with behind-the-scenes shots of Kuroe a few days later. As a side note, the "Dan-no-ura" was completely closed down at the time, without any presence of people inside.

Then the group returned home to replay the data. Although the camera angle was quite strange, at least it offered a clear view of who entered the shop. Skipping Kuroe's expressionless V-shaped gesture of victory directed towards the camera whenever she entered or exited the shop, they basically fastforwarded everything, only switching back to normal playback speed to check when customers entered the shop. After a few hours of this&mdash;

"W-What is going on?"

"Hmm... When you suddenly asked me to 'collect portraits of the victims,' I was going to ask why... So it turns out to be for this."

Kirika was also present in the Yachi living room. Along the way home from the electric appliance store, Haruaki had received her call. He felt bad about summoning Kirika so soon after her recovery but he could not think of another solution apart from asking her for help. Then using the victim's photographs Kirika had collected from the internet, they confirmed them with the customer's faces recorded by the security camera.

The result was just as Fear predicted.

"All of them were customers at the beauty parlor. So this is what they share in common&mdash;Hmm? Class Rep, what's the matter?"

"No, I just get this feeling... Something isn't right somewhere. I don't know. Am I worrying too much?"

Kirika confirmed the victims' images on screen many times but there was definitely no mistaking their identities. Konoha inclined her head and said:

"But judging from Alice's words, her goal was apparently to have us figure out the point of commonality. But this discovery doesn't yield anything significant, right? It only raises new questions&mdash;Why would she specifically tell us about this?"

"&mdash;I think I have an idea. Haruaki, can you continue to play the footage?"

"Eh? What are you talking about, Fear? We've already confirmed all the victims."

"Don't worry about that and just play it."

Although Haruaki did not understand, he did as she told and pressed fastforward. He paused whenever customers arrived but they were all irrelevant. Continuing in this manner, they reached today's records&mdash;Until a customer's arrival after it was dark.

"Alice...? She came again!"

"Th-This doesn't look good, right? Kuroe hasn't returned home yet, something could have happened..."

"I knew it."

Ignoring Haruaki and the rest who were getting up, Fear simply stared at the screen, hugging her knees to her chest.

"''As soon as you notice what's common, the problem will be solved''&mdash;That's what she said. That's right, although I have no idea what her intentions are, at least I know what should be done next..."

"Fear, what's going on?"

"Look at that woman's hand. She's carrying a paper bag, right? Then look at her coming out&mdash;Yeah, it's not there, just as I thought."

Fear continued. In other words, the paper bag was given to someone inside the beauty parlor.

"I saw it with my own eyes. That paper bag contained hair from the latest victim. Because the hair-color was too fancy, I recognized it immediately. As for the person who received the paper bag&mdash;She absorbed the hair."

"Wha&mdash;?"

"It was probably given as a gift. No, maybe she was 'taste testing' the hair she cut from the customers before choosing targets who passed. That's why hair was cut from the corpses and delivered... I see now."

Haruaki gasped as he listened to Fear's mutterings. Could she be insinuating&mdash;

"Come on... No way... You're suspecting Kuroe&mdash;?"

Even so, Fear did not turn around. Haruaki simply saw her shrug.

Then she said:


"Indeed... I am suspecting Kuroe. I suspect she might be connected to the Bivorio Family."


"W-Why would you... saying something like&mdash;"

"I saw it with my own eyes. Kuroe absorbed the victim's hair that Alice had brought. My intuition told me that she was eating, no mistake about it. Why would Alice bring it to her on purpose? Why would Kuroe eat that?"

"...I have never met this person named Kuroe, so let me simply report some news."

Kirika interjected in a calm tone of voice. Closing her eyes, she spoke pensively:

"While searching for portraits on the net, I also gathered facts from the reports. After all, I joined in comparatively late. And the most recent fact revealed to the public is&mdash;Other than being made into a cube shape, there were also body parts missing from the victims. In other words, they were ''taken by the culprit''."

"Absorbed... Perhaps there are other parts... as well?"

Haruaki was stunned. He did not want to hear this type of news. No, perhaps it was the truth, but he never expected Kuroe to be involved&mdash;

"Wait, hold on a second and calm down. Listen carefully, Kuroe has no reason to help the Bivorio Family, right? Same for Alice, she should have no reason to ask Kuroe for help. So somewhere here... There must be a misunderstanding..."

"...Oh, one more thing. Look here, this shows there's no wound on Alice's hand. But clearly she was injured in the abandoned house. I know someone who possesses healing powers. Bringing tasty human hair or whatever in exchange for healing... Is this enough to establish a cooperative relationship?"

Indeed, Alice's hand onscreen was not bandaged. Things were getting incomprehensible.

"The more I think, the fishier it gets. Besides, she didn't need to come home expressly, right? She is the one who led the Family here. Why would Alice switch targets so easily to me? It's also very strange why Kuroe would not mind cutting her hair. It's highly probable that they made a deal, such as helping them to kidnap me in exchange for not being abducted by them. Or more simply, she could already be a member of the Family&mdash;"

"Hmm~ Because I ran out of money. She followed on her own. Why she switched targets, I have no idea... Probably because Ficchi is more popular than me? After all, so long as there's no violence, my policy is to treat all arrivals as customers. Also, no matter what, I'm not going to sell my cute little self to others."

"Wha&mdash;!"

&mdash;The person who answered Fear was Kuroe, who had started standing at the living room entrance at some point. Her face was expressionless as she stared blankly as usual. Her voice also sounded quite calm.

"Kuroe? What have you been doing until now?"

"Sigh~ After closing up the shop... I had many things on my mind so I went for a walk. Along the way, I also went to buy the latest released game... My original plan was to return earlier, but I had to visit quite a few shops because the game was out of stock."

She lifted the shopping bag in her hand up high. Fear remained silent, her silver hair blocking her view.

Sighing lightly, Kuroe said:

"By the way&mdash;After some contemplation, I discovered something quite shocking. In actual fact, all the victims were customers who had visited my shop!"

"We've already confirmed that fact already. Stop playing dumb. Please explain yourself&mdash;We already know that Alice has visited your shop, bringing the victims' hair. The evidence is currently playing onscreen."

Kuroe glanced at the television and shrugged.

"She suddenly came to me, asking to have her hair cut shorter. My personal policy is to avoid turning the shop into a battlefield, so I had no choice but to trim her hair as if it were business as usual. In the end, she forced a paper bag on me as a gift. After closing the shop, I opened it for a look, only to discover it was hair I've seen before."

"You really think I'll believe that?"

"...Your suspicions run that deep? Hmm~"

Kuroe stood still with her head inclined, a troubled expression on her face. She looked like she was pondering something.

After a long while, she suddenly looked up&mdash;

"Let's do it this way then. Before my innocence is proven, you guys can imprison me."

"What?"

Haruaki poked his neck straight forward in reaction to this sudden proposal. Kuroe explained nonchalantly:

"If this is done, you guys will understand that I am not in contact with Alice, right? Although it breaks my heart to have my business interrupted for now, I want to clear my name as quickly as possible."

"There's no way of making sure you won't contact her during your imprisonment, right? This is meaningless."

"It shouldn't be meaningless. If the 'point of commonality' is being a customer of the beauty parlor, then once we close the shop, Alice will know that we have discovered it. She said that figuring it out will solve the problem, so she'd probably come here to show some sort of reaction, right?"

"Hmm. Then let's think about what she might do after she arrives... Normally, when a fellow member is imprisoned, most people would attempt a rescue, right?"

Kirika spoke calmly with her arms crossed before her chest. Kuroe nodded in agreement and turned to look at Fear again.

"Indeed. Conversely, if it were someone unrelated, she won't attempt a rescue. Could this be used as a test?"

After a moment of silence, Fear suddenly stood up.

"I have no idea what you're planning&mdash;but fine. Since you want to be imprisoned, you'll get what you wish for. After all, it would indeed bring Alice here. By let me state this for the record. I suspect you are helping that woman, so if a critical moment arrives, don't expect me to show any mercy!"

"W-Wait a minute, Fear! Can you think things over carefully!? Kuroe's explanations are not entirely impossible, right? You should calm down a bit!"

Haruaki could not contain himself any longer. He stood up and spoke impatiently. Only then did Fear look up for the first time and glare at Kuroe in the face:

"Have you forgotten? Haruaki. Perhaps everything else is all speculation, but there's one thing I saw with my own eyes. This girl ate human hair! How can this be explained? Strange, how very strange, too strange! Since curses have no effect on Haruaki, your true curse probably targets 'people around you' in actual fact! Your curse hasn't been lifted at all!"

Shouting violently, Fear shook her scattered silver hair.

"There's no success case, I am such a fool... Ahhh, but I already suspected this possibility from the start. I-I still&mdash;I still don't believe it completely! This type of ugly curse, with layer upon secure layer of curses, how could it possibly... be lifted...!"

Saying that, Fear gasped with a surprise realization. But immediately, she looked down and clenched her fists&mdash;

"Cow Tits, you're more suited to this, right? You'll monitor her!"

"Hey Fear, wait!"

Ignoring Haruaki, Fear ran to her room without even looking back. Haruaki wanted to chase after her, but&mdash;

"Yachi, it's better to let her cool off on her own for now. Judging by the way she looks, your words are just going to bounce off her... Just let her calm down first."

Hearing Kirika's calm voice, Haruaki sat down again. Sighing, he buried his face in his palms. Konoha then said:

"Sigh... Why impose this kind of task on me..."

"Because it's true, Konoha, you're the best at tasks like sensing presences or surveillance."

Fear's reasons were probably not limited to that... Indeed, definitely not.

"Actually, what she really feels is&mdash;She doesn't want to suspect Kuroe either. It's obvious."

"Then why not dispense with the suspicions?"

"She's currently confused, wanting to do something no matter what... So the only thing she could do was single out the most suspicious person... She's still a child after all."

Muttering helplessly, Haruaki turned his gaze towards Kuroe.

"&mdash;Are you serious about this?"

"Of course. Provided this draws Alice here and clears my name."

"Then what about the scene Fear described...?"

Kuroe slowly lowered her gaze, then calmly&mdash;she confessed.

"It's true. I absorbed life force from human hair."

"W-Why...?"

Haruaki originally thought Fear might have been mistaken in what she saw, but hearing Kuroe's confession, he was shocked. However, as if to reassure Haruaki, Kuroe calmly explained the reason:

"But this did not come from the desires of a curse. It is simply a part of my powers, like eating for nourishment or refueling."

"Refueling?"

"Didn't I help treat your wound last time, Haru? It's not a power that conjures its effects from thin air but one that depletes a corresponding amount of life force. I am simply replenishing that life force. In the past, as a result of the curse, I 'absorbed life force from the person through the act of severing hair.' Nowadays, I 'absorb remnants directly from hair that has been cut,' something like that. The amount is quite tiny and does not affect the person whose hair was cut. It's simply reuse and recycling."

Sighing in the middle, Kuroe continued blankly:

"Because there was no need to explain explicitly, I haven't told you all until now. No... Perhaps the thought of revealing this to you, Haru, makes me feel very guilty. Although it doesn't come from a curse's desires, it's true that I find hair very tasty."

"I-I see... You don't need to feel guilty about it. It's because I was injured that you had to do it."

"...Thank you. As for consuming the hair Alice brought, it was out of a different kind of necessity unrelated to nourishment&mdash;Because I instinctively knew, it was the hair of a deceased person. Not only was it the traces of life and threads of memories, but also proof that life has ended. That type of hair... holds special meaning to someone like me who was made by implanting that type of hair. Other than consuming it as an eulogy, I cannot do anything else for it."

"Say, why don't you explain all this to Fear?"

"Do you really think she'll accept it after listening?"

Haruaki fell silent. He knew quite well&mdash;At least for now, the answer was negative.

Kuroe looked blankly into the direction of Fear's room. That said, she could not possibly see through the walls.

"...Success case, huh? She misunderstood this incident, thus feeling betrayed, she became even more confused, right? That curses actually could not be lifted&mdash;That's the message she felt like she received."

Haruaki instantly understood. 'Success case' was what Fear blurted out.

He also recalled&mdash;the expression on Fear's face when she said "I still don't believe it completely."

Ahhh... So Fear still harbored such fears.

A sense of helplessness suddenly surfaced in Haruaki's heart. It resembled both sadness and shame.

Eyeing Haruaki's expression casually, Kuroe walked over to the closet and slid open the paper door. Poking her head inside, she swayed her tiny bottom as she rummaged.

"So be it, she should listen after some time passes and she calms down&mdash;Hmm? I remember keeping it here..."

"...What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for playing cards, UNO or something similar because the nights are long. Okay, Kono-san, hurry and prepare the pillows and futons. Let's use the room in the accessory dwelling as the place for imprisonment. After all, it has a toilet and a bath."

As usual, one could hardly comprehend what Kuroe was thinking. She acted as if she were totally unfazed by the suspicions cast upon her. This sort of attitude made one feel as though the notion of Kuroe as a traitor was completely absurd.

Who knew what Kuroe was thinking as she watched Konoha sigh, but she said:

"...Looks like you're not satisfied with playing games. Then perhaps we should talk about sex instead?"

"Of course not!"

Seriously, what am I going to do with you&mdash;Konoha grumbled as she stood up.

"This leaves me no choice, but I'll just have to humor you for now... Not due to Fear-san's orders, but because you requested it yourself, Kuroe-san. I also agree about clearing your name as quickly as possible. Besides, whether you're innocent or not, Kuroe-san&mdash;although I already know the answer&mdash;Since that person will be arriving, it's a good idea to increase security around you anyway, Kuroe-san."

"Yes yes, thank you for your troubles. By the way, I've been feeling very curious about something."

Kuroe withdrew her head from inside the closet, turning her gaze.

"...Who is this person? Someone related to Haru?"

"Although this is our first meeting, based on these words of yours, I think I can understand what sort of person you are."

In response to Kuroe pointing her little finger while speaking expressionlessly, Kirika shook her head in exhaustion. Then sweeping her gaze lightly across Haruaki&mdash;

"I am simply 'Yachi Haruaki's friend.' My name is Ueno Kirika. Pleased to meet you."

Kirika seemed as if she had accepted something and was proud of the fact that she could declare this aloud.

She puffed out her chest as she spoke.